The Chicago Bears play the Green Bay Packers Saturday in the NFC wildcard playoffs. 

In this city, a Bears v. Packers matchup is less a football game than a recurring test of faith. The air sharpens, old arguments resurface, and the color navy blue seems to deepen on storefronts and street corners. Rivalry week has a way of turning nostalgia into fuel.

And so CBS News Chicago went on a specific mission to find a Bears flag. But not just any Bears flag: the "Bear Down" flag, the one that feels inseparable from Soldier Field itself. The kind you see snapping in the lake wind, heavy with tradition, not mass-produced optimism.

Tucked into the South Chicago neighborhood, W.G.N. Flag & Decorating Company has been quietly manufacturing the visual language of the city since 1916. Long before "WGN" became synonymous with radio waves and television towers, it stood for William George Newbould, a hustler with a single flag, a good idea, and the nerve to build something lasting. More than a century later, that idea still hums inside the company's workshop.

Today, the business is run by fourth-generation Chicagoan Carl "Gus" Porter III, the great-grandson of Newbould, who continues to guide the company with the same steady respect for craftsmanship and civic responsibility that defined its beginnings. Under his leadership, W.G.N. remains both a working manufacturer and a living archive of Chicago's public life.

This is not a novelty shop or a nostalgia museum. It's a working operation where flags are appliquéd and sewn by hand, where banners are built to endure wind, weather, and meaning. W.G.N. has supplied Chicago with its most recognizable symbols, from municipal flags to championship banners, civic displays, and Bears flags that feel more like heirlooms than merchandise.

In a league dominated by licensing deals and overseas production, W.G.N. stands apart. This is where the city still makes things that matter. When Chicago celebrates, mourns, rallies, or remembers, chances are something stitched in South Chicago is part of the frame.

That's why, when searching for a "Bear Down" flag worthy of a Bears-Packers weekend, there was never really another option. Soldier Field energy doesn't come from a warehouse. It comes from places like this, where tradition is measured in decades, not seasons.

As kickoff approaches and the rivalry renews itself once again, the flags will fly. Navy and orange against green and gold. Pride versus proximity. And somewhere in the wind off Lake Michigan, you can feel the work of a 110-year-old Chicago company, still doing what it has always done: giving the city something to stand behind.

Bear down!