Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Elsa Gonzalez lived her life waiting for the Chicago Bears to make the Super Bowl. She listened as a toddler, then as a teen and now as a 21-year-old to tales of the 1986 Bears team that won the title game. Her wait is over.

``We're really excited after all this time waiting for it because Chicago hasn't been lucky,'' says Gonzalez, a resident of Chicago's North Side. At work as a clerk at the Long Grove Confectionary Co. on Madison Street, she's set up countertop collages of Bears photos alongside cookies emblazoned with the words ``Go Bears!''

Chicago is celebrating on the eve of Super Bowl weekend, donning jerseys, hanging banners and dusting off souvenirs from an earlier era. The third-largest U.S. city is making the most of the Bears' appearance against the Indianapolis Colts on Feb. 4 in Miami, knowing it may be the last chance in a generation.

Orange and blue knit Bears caps and scarves bobbed through the crowds in the city's financial district during the morning commute through subfreezing cold. On the Chicago Board of Trade floor, traders in Bears jerseys, T-shirts and hats gave shouts of ``Go Bears!'' A group of independent options traders hung a banner with Bears navy blue, orange and white on the booths above the 30-year options pit.

Anthony Bonelli, a clerk for DT Trading who was 11 months old for the Bears' last Super Bowl appearance, says he knows it may be another lifetime or more before another team appearance.

``It's great to experience this early if I had to wait another 30 years,'' he says, wearing a Bears hat and jersey with Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher's No. 54. ``It takes the pressure off.''

Banners, Souvenirs

Outside, four banners with Bears logos saying ``Go Bears'' grace the building that faces LaSalle Street in the center of the financial district.

Near Chicago's City Hall, a baseball-shaped hat in the dark blue Bears color sits atop a Pablo Picasso sculpture. In the clear-glass lobby of 111 S. Wacker Drive, across the street from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, building workers in Bears sweatshirts were handing out travel coffee cups under a ``Go Bears'' banner with orange and blue balloons.

Chicago football fans are planning their biggest celebrations since 1986, digging out souvenirs that have been lovingly stowed away along with wedding albums and baby books since the last Bears trip to the Super Bowl.

``I can't remember the last Super Bowl party I've had,'' says Gloria Engblom, 55, of suburban Lombard, Illinois. She's pulling out a photo of the 1985 team, a souvenir chip-and-dip holder in the shape of a football helmet that dates from 1986. ``Actually, we'll just look at that one. We got a new one to hold the food because that one's really kind of old.''

Historic Start

Chicago has been gripped with Bears fever since the team got off to a 7-0 start this season, the best since the last Bears team to appear in the Super Bowl, sparking editorials in the two biggest newspapers lauding this year's team as title contenders who will make up for any weakness in the city's other teams. The Cubs baseball team finished with the National League's worst record this year, extending to 98 years their streak of no World Series titles.

The Bears franchise, one of the oldest in professional football, had most of its championship success early in its history. Started as the Decatur Staleys in 1920 as part of the American Professional Football Conference, the team changed its name to the Chicago Bears in 1922, the same year the league became the NFL.

Led by Hall of Fame owner and coach George Halas and nicknamed the ``Monsters of the Midway,'' the Bears became one of the NFL's dominant teams, winning seven championships by 1946. The franchise added an eighth title in 1963.

`This Completes It'

The Super Bowl began following the 1966 season, and it would take 20 years for Chicago to make an appearance. Led by coach Mike Ditka and players such as Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon and William ``Refrigerator'' Perry, the Bears rolled to a 15-1 regular season record and would go on to rout the New England Patriots 46-10 in the Super Bowl.

During the following 18 seasons, Chicago would have more losing years, 11, than postseason appearances, seven. Lovie Smith was hired as coach in 2004 and had guided the team to the playoffs the past two seasons. Chicago had the National Football Conference's best record this season at 13-3, beating Seattle in overtime, 27-24, in its playoff opener before clinching a Super Bowl berth with a 39-14 win over New Orleans for the conference championship.

Casino betting-line adviser Las Vegas Sports Consultants says the Colts are seven-point favorites over the Bears.

That doesn't matter to Gonzalez, as she rearranged the cookies on her confectionary counter, recounting that she was several weeks old when the Bears last won it all: ``In school I always watched sports and played sports, so this completes it.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Lisa Leiter in Chicago at Lleiter@bloomberg.netAndrew Harris in Chicago at Aharris16@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 2, 2007 12:37 EST