Former Bears fullback Matt Suhey, who played on their 1985 championship team, died Sunday at 68, the team confirmed. He scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl XX on an 11-yard run as they rolled to a 46-10 win to capture the only Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
Suhey played a decade with the Bears in the 1980s, including eight years as the lead blocker for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton. He was a key piece during their best run in modern history with five consecutive playoff appearances from 1984 through ’88.
There is a famous photo of Payton and Suhey at a practice in the spring of 1985 in which Suhey is lined up for a play and Payton is pulling his shorts down from behind with a big smile on his face. Former Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander wrote that they were “best buds” and, “Their affection for each other would become clearest when Payton was dying of liver cancer and Suhey was there to soothe his friend and run interference for him against the swarming media horde.
The Bears drafted Suhey out of Penn State in the second round in 1980 and he went on to become one of their most celebrated players.
He played in every game as a rookie and was an incredibly reliable and durable player and appeared in 148 of a possible 152 games. He finished with 2,946 yards rushing and 20 touchdown runs, as well as 260 catches for 2,113 yards and five touchdowns. The Sun-Times ranked him No. 78 in its 100 Greatest Bears of All Time for their 100th season in 2019.