John Damore obit

John Damore, oldest living former Chicago Bears player, has died at 92

In an interview last year with the Chicago Sun-Times, he spoke of spending every game day on his bedroom recliner, with an unlit cigar in hand and his eyes glued to the Bears on TV. “I don’t miss a minute. And, if it plays twice, I watch it twice.”

 

He was not on the list.

At the peak of a 2025-26 Chicago Bears season that had fans thinking of a championship, John Damore dreamed of his “greatest goodbye” — that he might die soon after the Bears won the Super Bowl.

Mr. Damore — believed to be the oldest former Bears player since January 2025 — died Tuesday at home in Westmont. He was 92.

His dream didn’t come true for the Bears, eliminated by the Los Angeles Rams.

“There weren’t many people out there who didn’t just think he was the super-nicest guy,” Larry Damore said of his father. “He always had a crowd around him.”

Mr. Damore grew up in Riverside and remembered wearing a Bears jersey as a 9-year-old, long before he’d wear the team’s colors as an offensive lineman in 1957 and 1959.

An ankle injury prompted him to retire in 1959. But Mr. Damore’s love for the Bears only deepened. In an interview last year with the Chicago Sun-Times, he spoke of spending every game day on his bedroom recliner, with an unlit cigar in hand and his eyes glued to the Bears on TV.

“I don’t miss a minute,” he said. “And, if it plays twice, I watch it twice.”

Larry Damore said, as a kid, he wrestled and played football and baseball, with his father often coaching him but always there.

“He never missed a game,” he said. “He was always leading the cheers.”

John Bihun, a grandson, said he remembers a T-ball game at which Mr. Damore said he could “die a happy man” if he got to see him hit a home run.

Bihun said that, as he rounded third base after hitting the ball, his grandfather shouted, “I didn’t mean today, Lord!”

Mr. Damore, a Marine Corps veteran, formerly owned Damore Construction and Damore Builders in Riverside.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Joyce Damore, children Alison Bihun and Lawrence “Larry” Damore and grandchildren John Bihun and Ashley Bihun.

Visitation will be from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 19 at Conboy-Westchester Funeral Home in Westchester, with a service there at 10 a.m. Aug. 20.

He was an offensive lineman with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) for two seasons in 1957 and 1959. He missed the entire 1958 campaign due to sustaining a dislocated right ankle in a 24–17 preseason win over the Detroit Lions at the Cotton Bowl on 5 September. He ended his career as an active player after the 1959 season to manage a Riverside, Illinois-based cement construction firm owned by his father who had retired from its daily operations. His yearly salary as an NFL player was $9,000.

Damore played college football with the Bob Voigts-coached Northwestern Wildcats, serving as a senior co-captain in 1954. He was selected in Round 13 (152nd overall) by the New York Giants in the 1955 NFL draft.

Personal information

Born    October 20, 1933

Riverside, Illinois, U.S.

Died    August 4, 2026 (aged 92)

Westmont, Illinois, U.S.

Listed height   6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)

Listed weight  228 lb (103 kg)

Career information

High school     Riverside Brookfield

College            Northwestern

NFL draft        1955 (13th round, 152nd overall pick)

Career history

Chicago Bears (1957–1959)

Mohawk Valley Falcons (1965)

Awards and highlights

Second-team All-Big Ten (1954)