Only two major football teams in Illinois call themselves the Bears: the LZ Bears and the Chicago Bears. Matt Blanchard, 2007 graduate, has played for both.
Blanchard was the starting quarterback of the LZ football team in 2006, when the Bears finished second in the state after losing to St. Rita in the championship game.
Blanchard then went on to Northern Michigan University before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to play QB. At UWW, he helped the Warhawks win two Division III National Championships and went 25-0 as a starter.
Blanchard’s path to the NFL began unusually. He was not drafted but was signed to a contract with the Chicago Bears so he could attend the rookie minicamp. The Bears already had four other veteran QBs on the roster, however, so Blanchard looked like a longshot.
Thus, it was a pleasant surprise to Blanchard when the Bears kept him on the 90-man roster for training camp. After solid performances in practice and in the preseason, Blanchard was released from the 53-man roster, then signed to the practice squad.

He is the Bears’ third QB, so he would likely be promoted to the main roster if starter Jay Cutler or second string Jason Campbell got injured.
“It’s a dream come true,” Blanchard said in a TribLocal article. “I didn’t expect to get signed.”
His dream began as a sophomore QB at LZ, when Mike DeMatteo was the coach of a competitive Bears team.
“At that age a kid would be wide-eyed, scared. He was not. He was a leading rusher and did a great job, and we won [the first game he played],” DeMatteo said in the article. “He was very tall for his age and kind of gangly, but he was willing to do whatever he needed to do to get whatever job done that needed to get done.  [He was] very, very, very determined and absolutely fearless.”
Blanchard has come a long way since; the Chicago Bears website lists him at 6’3” and 225 lbs. His new coach, Lovie Smith, said positive things about him as well.
“[Blanchard] did some good things,” Smith said to ChicagoBears.com. “Quarterbacks have an opportunity. They know they’re going to get a chance to throw the ball and prove what they can do, and again we did take notice.”
Blanchard had to work hard to get to where he is now, and he must keep working to continue his NFL dream.
“You’ve always got to work hard, always got to work at your craft, whatever it is you got to be good at. If you’re in the weight room, the weight won’t lift itself. If you want strong arms, you won’t get them by sitting on the couch,” Blanchard said to the Tribune. “Now that you’re in the building and you are playing with these guys, the goal is to make the team want you to stick around.”