At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago’s United Center in August, as each state took turns reading the pledge to nominate delegates to presidential candidate Kamala Harris, the mood was one of celebration. But even in this moment, when Wisconsin leader Democrat Gov. Tony Evers found himself allied with Illinois (Gov. JB Pritzker also spoke at the convention that evening), he couldn’t help but poke… well, the Bears.
Before Evers’ own on-mic remarks went viral for a variety of reasons, he listed the state of Wisconsin sports teams, including the Green Bay Packers. And even in that moment of joy and unity, there were boos. Sure, it may have been at least partly in jest, but there are lines that can’t be crossed in this uneasy partnership.
What if the venues had been switched? If the roll call had taken place at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, where Harris was hosting a rally that night, and Pritzker had mentioned the Cubs and Bears briefly, imagine the boos. They would have been louder. And real. Chicago and Wisconsin have been at odds over professional sports for generations.
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There’s no other pairing like the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs, or the Milwaukee Bucks (who happen to play at the Fiserv Forum) and the Chicago Bulls (who happen to play at the United Center). Milwaukee is the smallest market in Major League Baseball and one of the smallest in the NBA. Green Bay is arguably the smallest pro sports market, and Milwaukee obviously roots for the Packers.
Milwaukee and Chicago are only 90 miles apart, but they’re separated by a state border and an invisible Grand Canyon, and unlike major markets in close proximity, like Oakland and San Francisco or Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the cities are in the same conference and division, and unlike Philadelphia and New York, which are roughly the same distance apart, the difference in size between Milwaukee and Chicago creates a laboratory of intense emotions.
Is this a bit of a “little brother” complex, born of jealousy, that makes smaller cities hate bigger ones? Probably. Chicago has far more professional sports titles than Wisconsin, after all. But Milwaukee and Wisconsin fans take pride in their local ecosystems, and they’re well aware that their sports fan base has never relied on national cable or the luxury of big-market support.
Big-city mistrust surfaces whenever national pundits wonder which big city will be Giannis’ next home or how the small-city Brewers can compete in the National League, but Chicago is a perfect example of our wariness.
Packers vs Bears (still no good)
The irony of “The Bears Still Sack Polka,” written in 1991 by the Manitowoc-based Happy Schnapps Combo, is that while it will be read by future generations of Packers fans as an anthem of enduring superiority, it was born out of a feeling of comfort.
Though the lyrics allude to it, if you know a bit of Packers history, 1991 was not a time for Packers fans to harbor any ill will. The team was on the brink of a three-decade span of success but hadn’t gotten there yet. Brett Favre and Reggie White were well on their way to a destination that would see them become Super Bowl champions and legends. The Bears were a team with a more recent success story, having made a Super Bowl appearance after the 1985 season.
But the polka, full of exaggerated lyrics in a Wisconsin accent, has grown into the psyche of Packers fans across the state. Even Chicago radio station WLUP started playing the song after Bears losses in the early 1990s. From 1992-2024, Green Bay went 50-15 against Chicago, winning their final 10 straight and 15 of 16, including an NFC Championship Game victory in early 2011.
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For Packers fans, no matter how bad things got (and they never were that bad), there was comfort in knowing that one thing would always remain sentimentally true: The Bears are “really, really, really, really, really the worst.”
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This kind of concentrated vendetta isn’t unique to football, but the NFL perfectly symbolizes the sports rivalry between Wisconsin fans and Chicago. Tiny Green Bay, which has no skyline except for the stadium itself, has always had an edge over one of the three biggest U.S. markets in its immediate vicinity. Getting the best of the big city is a continuing source of pride for Packers fans, but that doesn’t mean the animosity has disappeared.
The Brewers were not fond of the White Sox or any other team in Chicago.
The Brewers moved to the National League in 1998 and have never been fond of Chicago, even before they played the Cubs in interleague play for the first time in 1997.
It’s complicated, as the White Sox once called County Stadium home in 1968 and even considered relocating to Milwaukee after the Milwaukee Braves left town, and future Brewers owner Bud Selig did everything he could to bring baseball back to Milwaukee after a disastrous 1965 season that saw the legendary Braves relocate for better ground in Atlanta (did we mention it was a Chicago businessman who made the decision?).
Just months after the National League decided to reject Milwaukee and award expansion franchises to San Diego and Montreal for the 1969 season, Selig reached a verbal agreement with White Sox co-owner Art Allyn to buy the team and move it north.
But Allyn’s brother John stepped in at the last minute, demanding to buy the team and keep it in Chicago. Selig was snubbed, but he quickly moved to Plan C, working out a deal to buy the financially struggling Seattle Pilots, who had joined Kansas City in 1969 as an expansion team in the American League.
The Brewers had a whirlwind start before the 1970 season, and it didn’t take long for neighbors to start finding them a nuisance.
Brewers-White Sox highlights include a series of altercations involving their managers. White Sox manager Tony La Russa, a longtime Milwaukee villain, dislocated his shoulder in a brawl in 1980. Brewers manager Phil Garner, nicknamed “Scrap Iron” as a player, appeared to challenge a White Sox announcer to a fight over statements he deemed false. In 1995, he was hit hard during a brawl with White Sox manager Terry Bevington, suffered a cut in the face and was suspended for four games.
A year later, White Sox player Tony Phillips was fined for disturbing the peace after punching a Brewers fan behind the stands at County Stadium.
However, with the potential for geographic imbalances created by new MLB expansions, the Brewers voluntarily decided to switch from the American League to the National League in 1998, returning to their roots as the Milwaukee Braves. Instead of playing against the White Sox on Chicago’s south side, the Brewers would play against a team even closer to them, the Cubs, on the north side of the Windy City.
Chicago Cubs fans dominate Brewers fans at American Family Field
Milwaukee, the 31st largest market in the United States, is at a distinct disadvantage within its third largest markets: the city population zone alone has four times the population, and that’s not even counting the much larger suburban areas. The entire state of Wisconsin has just over half the population of the Chicago metropolitan area.
So when Cubs fans flock to American Family Field every time the Brewers play their rival, outrage ensues. Cubs pitcher Cole Hamels once questioned the nature of a “rivalry,” suggesting that rivalries wouldn’t matter if Cubs fans simply occupied the rival team’s stadium, even if the other team was good enough to make the playoffs.
Preventing this from happening is often insurmountable: Brewers fans who want to buy tickets for multiple games in the season know they can sell them to Cubs fans who live closer to Milwaukee than they can on Chicago’s north side.
The issue can’t be easily defined by Wisconsin’s southern border, since the Cubs have historically cultivated fan bases across the country, including in Milwaukee. The premium price the team charges for Cubs games further discourages local attendance, where another game against the Reds or Rockies is enough without the hassle of being surrounded by opposing fans.
Then the Cubs acquired Craig Counsell.
If anyone knows the true nature of the feud between the Brewers and Cubs, it’s undoubtedly Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who became the Brewers’ winningest manager in history during his tenure from 2015-2023. Having grown up in Whitefish Bay, Counsell was the perfect man for the job — his father grew up around County Stadium and Counsell played for the Brewers for six of his 16-year career.
But there was speculation that Counsell might seek a bigger job in 2024, possibly with the New York Mets, a team with a managerial vacancy led by former Brewers general manager David Stearns. Then the most shocking news of all came: Counsell was indeed leaving… for the Cubs.
Oh dear, Milwaukee fans were thinking. Have you ever heard booing in a sports venue? This is on a different level. It’s amazing how quickly a city can turn its back on a man who has overseen the most extended period of success the franchise has ever seen. There are lines that just can’t be crossed.
Bucks vs. Bulls also includes Giannis vs. Mike Dunleavy
Like Cubs fans, Bulls fans hoping to see Michael Jordan in his prime frequently fill the BMO Harris Bradley Center, while Chicago fans also flock to the Fiserv Forum to watch NBA games.
The two teams have met in the playoffs five times: Milwaukee was eliminated in Jordan’s rookie season in 1985, but the Bulls tied it in 1990.
But their best years didn’t overlap, which may explain why NBA circles have not seen as much animosity between the two teams as MLB circles have. The Bulls were solid in the early 1970s, but they weren’t as impressive a challenge to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Bucks as Wilt Chamberlain’s Lakers were. The Bulls were no threat during the Bucks’ continued success under Don Nelson in the early 1980s, and by the time Jordan rose to power in the late ’80s, the Bucks had become more or less an easy hurdle for the Bulls.
But there was that 2015 series in which the gritty Bucks took the Bulls to a sixth game before losing in the first round of the playoffs. Giannis Antetokounmpo, a skinny, promising second-year player, took it upon himself to settle what he saw as a sneaky assault by former Bucks player and now-Bulls forward Mike Dunleavy. Giannis knocked Dunleavy to the floor, and the referees ejected him from the game.
The Bucks were coming off a long period of mediocrity and it was clear that Antetokounmpo was the man to lead the way. This blatant move wasn’t necessarily the right one, but it marked a turning point for the big changes that followed.