Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey is among 25 individuals in the Contributor category eligible for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of its Class of 2025.

The Hall's Contributor Blue-Ribbon Committee trimmed an original list of 47 nominees to 25. The list will be further reduced to nine semifinalists, with those results expected to be announced in about two weeks. The 24 other nominees are K.S. "Bud" Adams, Roone Arledge, Chris Berman, Howard Cosell, Otho Davis, John Facenda, Mike Giddings, Ralph Hay, Frank "Bucko" Kilroy, Don Klosterman, Eddie Kotal, Robert Kraft, Rich McKay, John McVay, Art Modell, Lee Remmel, Eddie Robinson, Art Rooney Jr., Jerry Seeman, Seymour Siwoff, Amy Trask, Jim Tunney, Doug Williams and John Wooten.

Mrs. McCaskey, the only daughter of Pro Football Hall of Famer George Halas, has been the Bears' principal owner since 1983. She was born on Jan. 5, 1923, less than three years after her father founded the Bears as the Decatur Staleys and helped create what would become the NFL.

No single individual has witnessed as much pro football history as Mrs. McCaskey. In the Chicago Bears Centennial Scrapbook, a 320-page keepsake created in 2019 that chronicles the franchise's first 100 years, Mrs. McCaskey recalled Hall of Famer Red Grange, who was football's most popular superstar in his day, carrying her in front of him through train stations so fans wouldn't recognize him and mob him for autographs.

Mrs. McCaskey was featured prominently in the 2019 documentary "A Lifetime of Sundays" along with three other female NFL owners. In the documentary, Mrs. McCaskey shared her memories of Grange and the barnstorming tour that popularized professional football, the heartbreak she felt following the deaths of Bears running backs Walter Payton and Brian Piccolo and her reaction to unexpectedly inheriting the Bears in her 60s upon her father's passing in 1983.

When her son, Bears chairman George H. McCaskey, celebrated his mother's 100th birthday in 2023, he described her greatest qualities as her "grace, quiet dignity, humility and gratitude," and stated that she continued to inspire him "every day in every way" with "a remarkable combination of grit and grace."

Earlier this year, the Hall of Fame revised its bylaws beginning with the Class of 2025. Changes included splitting the Coach/Contributor category, which had been combined over the past few election cycles. Both categories now will send nominees through respective Blue-Ribbon Committees before candidates are considered by the full Selection Committee.

Through a sequence of reduction votes over several weeks, the Blue-Ribbon Committee will select one finalist for the Class of 2025.