The 1943 season was the Chicago Bears' 24th in the National Football League. The team failed to match on their 11–0 record from 1942 and finished at 8–1–1, under temporary co-coaches Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos. On the way to winning the Western Division, the Bears were, yet again, denied a chance at an undefeated season by the defending champion Redskins in Washington. The Bears had their revenge in the NFL title game and defeated the Redskins at Wrigley Field to claim their sixth league title. It was their third championship in four years, establishing themselves as the pro football dynasty of the early 1940s. Offseason Attempted merger with the Cardinals When the United States entered World War II, over 1,000 NFL personnel joined the military, including 350 players and 45 active Bears, the latter featuring over half of the 1942 team. Chicago also lost head coach George Halas to the United States Navy during the 1942 season, which forced assistant coaches Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos to take over as co-head coaches. Minority owner Ralph Brizzolara, a friend of Halas', became the interim president and general manager. A shortage of players occurred as teams attempted to salvage their rosters; the Cleveland Rams were eventually forced to shut down for the 1943 season as both of their owners were serving. NFL owners considered going on hiatus for 1943, but elected to reduce roster sizes to 25 from 33, along with allowing free substitution throughout games. Halas returned to Chicago for the annual owners' meeting on June 19, where the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers requested to merge operations for the upcoming season. Halas and Chicago Cardinals owner Charlie Bidwill also did the same; the two owners were close friends, with Bidwill owning a share in the Bears and serving as team secretary before purchasing the Cardinals. A group of four owners, led by George Preston Marshall of the Washington Redskins, opposed the two mergers, which they felt gave the merging teams "an easy out" compared to assembling their rosters on their own like the other teams. The four lobbied for a rule in which one merging team must disperse its players to the other teams in the league, which would have rendered the mergers pointless, though it was passed 5–2 (Philadelphia's Harry Thayer and Pittsburgh's Art Rooney voted against, while Halas and Bidwill abstained). Thayer and Rooney pleaded for the