Once upon a time, the Chicago Bears played and won a National Football League championship game in Chicago--indoors, and long before the advent of the modern domed stadium.

It was the week before Christmas, Dec. 18, 1932, when subarctic weather gripped Chicago and prompted the Bears to move their title game against the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans from frigid Wrigley Field to the warm confines of the Chicago Stadium.

There, led by the legendary Bronko Nagurski and Harold ''Red'' Grange, the Bears defeated the Spartans 9-0 on a makeshift 80-yard dirt and turf gridiron in the NFL`s first playoff championship game.

It was a precedent-setting game for both the Bears and the league.

For the Bears, it was their first championship since they had won their first title in 1921. It was the beginning of the ''Monsters of the Midway''

tradition that prevailed into the 1940s.

For the league it meant rule changes prompted by the first indoor title game, which opened up both the passing and running offenses, marking the start of an evolution away from low-scoring, defensive struggles to high-scoring contests that excited and attracted fans.

The scene for the title game had been set the Sunday before, when the Bears tied the Spartans for the lead of the one-division league by defeating the Green Bay Packers 9-0.

Only 5,000 fans had braved a heavy snowfall and temperatures that hovered just above zero to go to Wrigley Field to watch the Bears take on Earl

''Curly'' Lambeau`s Packers, who had won a record three straight championships in 1929, 1930 and 1931. The Packers had handed the Bears their only loss of the 1932 season, 2-0.

The game was scoreless until the fourth quarter when Paul ''Tiny''

Engebretsen kicked a 14-yard field goal and Nagurski then managed to skid and slide 56 yards on the icy field for a touchdown to seal the victory.

When the thermometer plunged to below zero in the following days, George Halas and Ed Sternaman, co-owners of the Bears, feared that only a hardy few would attend the playoff game the following Sunday.

The Bears had played the Chicago Cardinals in an exhibition game for charity in Chicago Stadium in 1930 and Halas and Sternaman decided it would be financially prudent to play the playoff game there.

They received approval from Joe Carr, NFL president, and Harry Snyder, the Spartans` president and game time was set for 8:15 p.m., perhaps the first night game in NFL history.

A circus had performed in the arena a week earlier, leaving the floor still covered with six inches of dirt. Halas and Sternaman had turf brought in and planted atop the dirt.

The 80-yard field was laid out with a goal post at only one end. The stadium ceiling was high enough to allow punting but the teams agreed to prohibit field goal kicking.

Since the width of the improvised playing field was only 145 feet compared to the normal 160 feet, the teams agreed that whenever a play ended near the sideline the ball would be moved 10 yards in from the sideline for the start of the next play.

This minimized possible collisions of players with the stands and allowed every play to be run either left or right.

This led to the creation of hash marks to put the ball in play the following season when Halas, as chairman of the rules committee, proposed making the hash mark spotting of the ball permanent. The sideline ceased to be a weapon of the defense and the game was opened to more end runs and sideline passes.

Ralph Jones, former Lake Forest College coach, was in his third year as Bears head coach, after Halas and Sternaman had stepped aside as co-coaches in an attempt to stop their bickering over coaching strategy after the team`s disastrous 4-9-2 season in 1929.

Jones had promised to bring the Bears a championship in three years.

The small, quiet Jones had coached both Halas and Sternaman when he was an assistant to Bob Zuppke at the University of Illinois and was known as a smart, innovative coach.

In the age of the single wing, double wing and Notre Dame Box formations, he began evolving the Bears` out-of-style T-formation by splitting the ends out from the rest of the front line of players. He began putting a player in motion.

His strategy marked the start of the T-formation`s evolution that reached its peak in the early 1940s and revolutionized football.

To help him in his title quest against Portsmouth in the indoor battle, Jones had the support of some of the best players in Bears` history. In addition to Nagurski and Grange, he could call upon two other future NFL Hall of Fame players--center George Trafton, in his 13th and last year, and end Bill Hewitt, who played without a helmet, in his first year.

He also could count on end Luke Johnsos, later a longtime Bears coach;

John ''Bull'' Doehring, the extraordinary behind-the-back passer; runner Johnny Sisk, quarterbacks Carl Brumbaugh and Keith Molesworth, and guards Jules Carlson and Joe Kopcha.

Portsmouth Coach George ''Potsy'' Clark, whose Spartans would become the Detroit Lions in 1934, could call on backs Leroy ''Ace'' Gutowsky and Glenn Presnell.

The Bears and Spartans had played two tie games during the season, 7-7 and 14-14. For three quarters it looked as if the playoff game also would end in a scoreless tie as the teams headed into the fourth quarter.

The 11,198 fans, the smallest title game crowd in NFL history, provided gross gate receipts of only $15,000, but they heard for the first time the impact of bodies slamming against bodies in the indoor setting.

Their hearts sank when Grange, following a 15-yard end run in the first quarter, was knocked out and had to be carried off the field. He returned, however.

The Bears finally got the break they needed in the last quarter when Bear back Dick Nesbitt intercepted a Gutowsky pass deep in Spartan territory and ran it to the 7 yard line.

On the next play, Nagurski bulled for 6 yards, but he had a net loss of 1 yard in his next two tries, leaving the Bears with fourth and goal on the 2 yard line.

The Spartans steeled themselves for what they expected would be Nagurski`s inevitable last charge into their line.