The Turf Club takes bets on football games.
The Chicago Bears were an American football team from Chicago, Illinois. They had their best seasons in 1985 and 2015.
In an alternate timeline, Biff Tannen received a sports almanac detailing fifty years of sports statistics from his older self. Since he was underage, he couldn't bet. So, on November 13, 1955, he gave money to his grandmother to bet on the Chicago Bears. She didn't bet on the Bears, and they won against the Los Angeles Rams, making Biff twenty dollars poorer. Biff told her to make another bet, on the Washington Redskins. However, when they beat the San Francisco 49ers, she only gave Biff back his twenty dollars, and kept the rest for herself. When Gertrude claimed Biff was as greedy as his father, Biff stated that he learned that from her.
In 2015, one of the teams they played against was the Spacers. The Bears -v- Spacers game was broadcast on ESPN - Channel 211-D, which Marty McFly, Jr. watched on his video glasses while eating dinner with his family on October 21.
Behind the scenes
- The football game is mentioned in the novelization, but not in the film itself. In extended footage of the dinner table scene, cut from the final release, Marty Jr. yells "Fumble!" while watching the game on his video glasses, indicating that he's watching football.
- In the novel, the Bears are described as playing in the "IFL", suggesting that the former National Football League has become an International Football League. By 2015, pro football is being played on Wednesday nights. (On September 5, 2012, life imitated art as the NFL actually began its season on a Wednesday night, departing from its traditional format of Sunday, Monday and some Thursday games).
- The Bears were indeed having "their best season in 30 years", having won seven games and lost none as of Marty's departure from 1985. The most recent Bears' game when Marty left had been a win over the Packers on October 21, 1985, exactly thirty years before the game against the Spacers.
- In reality, the Chicago Bears did win against the Los Angeles Rams on November 13th, 1955.