Bonded by Bears, this friend group started with small tailgates then became the First and Ten Tailgate crew

A decade ago, tailgates for Bears games consisted of a cooler, small grill and a couple friends for Rafael Gomez and Ray Maali.

Hours before Saturday’s playoff game against the Bears’ historic rival Green Bay Packers, music from their tailgate in a South Loop parking lot echoed down the block.

A bar, a table filled with beers, a food truck and an open fire pit served the dozens of fans, most dressed in Bears jerseys, some with cheese grater hats, a fur coat and someone dressed as the pope. Even a Detroit Lions and a Miami Dolphins fan were welcomed.

“We started bringing in our own tents, our own food, it was very small,” said Carolyn Mendoza, a friend of Gomez and Maali who helps organize the tailgates. “But it was very much like a fan of fans, so we started to get to know people. And [fans of] other opposing teams that would come to Chicago, they never felt like they had somewhere to go.”

The friend group slowly transformed their small tailgates into what’s now called the First and Ten Tailgate. For Saturday's game, they packed up the tailgate into a U-Haul trailer as a heavy lakefront snow fell, and headed to Everything Bar in West Town to take in the game.

Rafael Gomez, 49, restaurant owner from Plainfield

Rafael Gomez admitted he was “scared to play Green Bay” in the win-or-go-home game Saturday because if the Bears lose, “we’ll never live it down.” But, “I wouldn’t have it any other way at the same time,” he said.

A core memory of his Bears fandom was at 9 years old, at his dad's friend's house watching the 1985-86 Bears team dominate their lone Super Bowl victory. But his favorite memory was when the Bears made their only other Super Bowl in 2007. “I will never forget the jubilation of when Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff,” he said.

Jessica Gomez, 38, restaurant owner from Plainfield

The moment Jessica Gomez, 38, became a fan is still ingrained to her memory. The Bears were losing some game and her dad “lost his mind.”

“I was probably like 7 or 8 years old and that really, like, put it into my head, like, this is important. People care about this,” she said.

And now, her best times as a fan are at the First and Ten Tailgate events — win or lose, rain, snow or sun.

But this year has been different. The Bears are actually playing well, and for the first time in five years, they made the playoffs.

“It’s super, super exciting. We didn’t even expect to be in the playoffs, those first four games were a little rough," Jessica Gomez said.

As a fan of whoever plays tight end, Jessica Gomez said this Bears team feels extra special.

“I love Cole Kmet, Colston Loveland," she said, but more so Kmet, who's from Arlington Heights and attended the University of Notre Dame. "He’s a Chicago guy, which is really cool. My son does wrestling tournaments at the high school that he went to. It’s just kind of like, if I were a football player and I grew up in Chicago and I got to play in Chicago, that’d be the ultimate dream."

Ray Maali, 50, finance worker from Oak Lawn

Maali wasn’t born into Bears fandom.

His parents immigrated from Gaza. They didn’t know anything about the Bears, and didn’t watch sports. He picked up on it from his classmates.

“Being an active kid, I was always playing football or baseball, and the Bears are our team,” said Maali, 50, from Oak Lawn. “And Walter Payton, me being 7 or 8 years old watching this man do some magic on the field, like, I love this.”

Maali shares his best Bears memory with Rafael Gomez, whom he called his best friend: Hester's kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLI.

Maali and Rafael Gomez watched the game together at a friend’s house, where their friend had just finished building an addition to the house.

“We went so crazy, we almost broke the addition off the house,” Maali said.

Like Jessica Gomez, Maali's favorite player on the current roster is another hometown guy: linebacker T.J. Edwards, who grew up in suburban Lake Villa. "I love the way he plays, I love his passion," Maali said.

Carolyn Mendoza, 41, accountant from Aurora

You'll never catch Carolyn Mendoza wearing yellow.

“I don’t like cheese, I don’t like yellow," she said Saturday, wearing a navy blue and orange sweatshirt reading, "F--- the Packers."

She, too, was born into being a Bears fan. In fact, she was born just a year ahead of the Bears' iconic 1985 team.

While her all-time favorite player is Brian Urlacher, she also has fond memories of Hester's numerous touchdown returns.

With this new era of Bears football, she a big fan of star quarterback Caleb Williams.

"He brought something different," she said. "I love the nail polish, I love his persona, I love everything about him. … The nail polish caught so much attention, and I’m like, who cares, that’s for his mom. I just love everything about him. I like how he rolls when we lose, he never blames it on anybody, he takes ownership, and I really like that.”

Alex “El Campeón” Mendoza, 38, semi-truck driver from Aurora

Alex Mendoza, Carolyn's husband, is known in the group as "El Campeón," meaning, "the champion," a persona he typically fills by donning a championship wrestler belt at most tailgates.

Just like his friends, he was brought up a Bears fan — and Packers hater — because of his father.

"You're born in Illinois, of course you're going to hate the Packers," he said.

Defensive end Austin Booker has caught Alex Mendoza's attention this season, in a year when the Bears have been searching for a consistent pass rush.

"He’s making do with what he’s got right now. He’s had to come from his injury in training camp and he’s working his way back, but I like him, he’s the type of guy we need right now," Mendoza said. "We need pressure on that quarterback.”