"Bear Down: Football in the Windy City" exhibit opening at Elmhurst History Museum

While Chicago Bears fans are focused on the present and the future, a museum in Elmhurst is inviting fans to look at the past.

"Bear Down: Football in the Windy City" opens on Friday at the Elmhurst History Museum.

Sarah Cox is a history buff who bleeds navy and orange. As curator of exhibits at the Elmhurst History Museum, she's been working for two years to tell this story – a story not only about the Bears, but other Chicagoland football teams.

"Like the Chicago Cardinals, the Rockets, the Hornets, even the team that was only around for a year, the Tigers," she said. "The Elmhurst Travelers, they played here from 1927 all the way until 1968."

Cox worked with the Bears, private collectors and the Pro Football Hall of Fame to pack the museum with Monsters of the Midway and even a "Galloping Ghost" – Hall of Fame halfback Red Grange, who played for the Bears for seven seasons in the 1920s and 1930s.

"Red Grange is often considered the first superstar," Cox said. "I think his most famous was scoring four touchdowns in 12 minutes."

The exhibit at the Elmhurst History Museum includes a pair of Grange's shoes, one of his footballs, and even a Red Grange doll.

There are several vintage Bears jerseys and at least one mannequin in former Bears coach Mike Ditka's iconic sweater, cap, sunglasses, and mustache, holding a mug of beer on a table with a miniature Bears helmet and a cheese grater.

"That was made extremely famous by the SNL skit 'Super Fans,'" Cox said.

The museum is full of football history. Now, it's up to the Bears to make some more.

The exhibit runs through Jan. 24. It's free, but donations are welcomed.