Staley Da Bear
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
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Embarking on pro sports career
Determined to work for a professional sports team, Wade had only two options in Iowa, both in her hometown of Des Moines. There was the Chicago Cubs Triple A baseball team, and an Arena Football League franchise, the Iowa Barnstormers, who are best known for launching the pro career of Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner.
Wade's cousin worked as a receptionist for the Barnstormers, so she often visited the facility and volunteered to answer phones and help wherever she was needed. With persistence and a strong work ethic, she ultimately convinced the Barnstormers to create an internship for her.
One day Wade answered a call from Felisa Israel, who was coordinating a WNBA all-star tour that was planning to play a game in Des Moines to help promote the new women's professional basketball league. Israel was looking for halftime entertainment and Wade suggested the Isiserettes, a drill and drum corps that was founded and operated by Wade's family in Des Moines.
"I invited her to a practice and she was obsessed," Wade said.
"They were frickin' phenomenal," said Israel, who spent more than 20 years with the NBA and now operates her own live event production company. "I felt like I found a goldmine in the middle of no man's land."
Israel was so impressed with Wade that she hired her to work the WNBA game in Des Moines and remains a mentor and friend two decades later.
Wade's first meeting with Israel showed the future Bears director of events and entertainment what she could achieve as a woman in pro sports. "That was the first time I saw what was possible," Wade said. "I had no idea."
"I'll never forget it," Israel said. "She just looked at me wide-eyed like she was inspired by me working in a very male-dominated industry at the time. I just saw her tenacity and how she took initiative to help me and guide me and direct me. She was just being so helpful and kind."
Wade was elevated by the Barnstormers into a full-time position as a business assistant in 2001. In her new role, she handled a wide variety of tasks, including paying vendors, helping to create the media guide and—perhaps most importantly—assisting in the game-day presentation.
"It kind of opened up this whole world of the production side of things," Wade said. "Basically I ended up finding out how to put together a show, what goes into it and how you work together with all the other departments."
Heading to the Windy City
Wade's goal was to eventually land a job with a major league sports team in one of the three big cities closest to Des Moines—Kansas City, Minneapolis or Chicago. She felt an especially close bond with the Windy City—and not only because she frequently visited Chicago with friends.
"I was an obsessive Michael Jordan fan," Wade said. "I watched every Bulls game. I had posters all over my wall. Every time we came [to Chicago] we would go and stand in front of the Michael Jordan statue and take pictures. There was something that just kept drawing myself back to Chicago. It's an amazing sports city. I've always enjoyed the culture and what it had to offer. Chicago was always the place I wanted to be."
Wade landed her first job in the Second City in 2001 when the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League hired her as assistant director of marketing and operations. She spent seven memorable seasons with the team before the league folded in 2008.
Wade made quite an impression on Mike Polisky, who served as the Rush's president and general manager for her entire tenure with the team.
"She had an amazing attitude," Polisky said. "I don't ever remember seeing her without a smile on her face and just terrific energy. I really look at her as a near-perfect colleague. She's amazing, she really is. She's driven, but incredibly empathetic. People love working with her, people love working for her. No job is beneath her. She's incredibly responsible, detail-oriented, supremely talented and she's just terrific. And then she has this passion about her and drive to be exceptional at what she does, but she never ever puts anything in the way the team mentality."
Polisky's praise of Wade continued unabated.
"The one thing that I always knew about her was that we were going to find the solution," he said. "During our eight seasons together, whenever there was an issue and we needed it to get resolved in the right way, she'd be the one that we would call.
"Overseeing everything that happens on game day, she just did it with such poise. There was a ton of pressure and she could have struggled with some of the obstacles we ran into, but she never did. And people absolutely loved her. They talk about her to this day. I'm still friends with people over at Allstate [Arena]. They still talk about how terrific she was."
Landing her dream job with the Bears
After the Arena Football League folded, Wade was hired by the University of Minnesota. She was serving as the school's director of premium seating and events in 2013 when she received an email that changed her life. It was from a former colleague at the Rush, Brian Forth, who worked for the Bears and was informing her that the Bears were hiring a director of events and entertainment.
"It was sent to an old Hotmail account that I never check," Wade said. "Something told me to check it. All I saw was junk mail, but something told me to check every page of the junk mail. No one does that. But I did that day and I saw an email from Brian Forth. I opened it and it was about the role that I saw in my head at the [2001 Bears] game that day."
Twelve years after sitting in the Soldier Field stands envisioning herself in that position, Wade interviewed for the job and was hired by the Bears. "It was an amazing journey," she said. "To me, it felt like it's exactly where I'm supposed to be."
Whether it's showcasing visuals on the videoboard, developing an interactive experience or coordinating the halftime celebration of a Bears legend, she's proud to see fans enjoy something that took weeks or even months to plan.
"The work that goes on behind the scenes to make something come to fruition, when I see it happen, that's worth every bit of the hard work," Wade said. "When an idea or something we worked really hard on or we know we're doing for a good cause or good purpose comes to fruition, seeing that, especially on a game day, it just sends chills down my spine."