As part of their annual alumni weekend, the Bears hosted more than 100 of their former players at a dinner Saturday night at Hyatt Regency Chicago and at their home opener Sunday at Soldier Field. The players were honored on the field at halftime, during which there was a moment of silence for former Bears fullback and Super Bowl XX champion Matt Suhey, who passed away Sept. 6.

A pair of 2006 NFC champions, Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher and cornerback Charles "Peanut" Tillman, served as honorary captains during the coin toss and fired up the crowd before kickoff, waving rally towels. Later in the game, after a "4^th Phase" video featuring Urlacher was shown, he walked out of the tunnel and energized the fans.

Bears vice president Brian McCaskey emceed the dinner, introducing President and CEO Kevin Warren, who welcomed the alumni to the event. McCaskey also acknowledged former Bears who had passed away over the last year: Jim Cadile, John Damore, Don Kindt Jr., Rudy Kuechenberg, coach Dave McGinnis, Mac Percival and Suhey.

ChicagoBears.com caught up with five former players over the weekend: Safety Gary Fencik, running back Jordan Howard, linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, defensive tackle Henry Melton and kicker Paul Edinger.

Fencik played 12 seasons with the Bears from 1976-87. A two-time Pro Bowler, he is the franchise's all-time leader with 38 interceptions and was the leading tackler and a defensive captain on the famed 1985 Super Bowl XX championship team.

Howard was chosen by the Bears in the sixth round of the 2016 draft out of Indiana and spent three seasons in Chicago. In 2016, he set team rookie rushing records with 1,313 yards and seven 100-yard games, finished second in the NFL in rushing and joined Hall of Famer Gale Sayers as the franchise's only rookie running backs to be selected to the Pro Bowl.​

Colvin was selected by the Bears in the fourth round of the 1999 draft out of Purdue and played his first four NFL seasons in Chicago. Shifting from linebacker to defensive end on passing downs, he became the first Bears player to reach double digits in sacks in back-to-back years since Hall of Famer Richard Dent.

Melton was chosen by the Bears in the fourth round of the 2009 draft out of Texas. Spending his first four NFL seasons in Chicago, he helped the Bears reach the NFC Championship Game in 2010 and was voted to the Pro Bowl in 2012.

Edinger was picked by the Bears in the sixth round of the 2000 draft out of Michigan State. He spent five seasons in Chicago and ranks seventh in franchise history with 463 points. Edinger made all 133 extra points he attempted with the Bears.

Here's what the former players had to say:

Where are you living and what's happening in your life?

Fencik: "I'm still living in Chicago with my wife Sandy. My son and his wife recently had our first granddaughter, so we're spending a lot of time with them. My daughter is finishing up business school this year at UCLA, and I'm on a couple of different not-for-profit boards. Other than that, I'm trying to improve my golf game, but it seems to be almost mission impossible there. Other than that, I get out in the winter a bit, usually to Florida, and I'm trying to stay healthy, which is a little more challenging than you would like to believe."

Howard: "I live in South Florida right outside Miami. I volunteer twice a month with a juvenile detention center. I have hopes of starting a non-profit."

Colvin: "I'm a professional napper. I'm living the life of leisure, which is very expensive because I take a lot of trips to the West Coast and around the country. My biggest role is to support my kids. My daughter's a professional volleyball player (with the Atlanta Love in League One Volleyball) and my youngest, Myles, is in his fourth year of college basketball and hopefully gets a chance to go to the [NBA]. He is now at the University of Cincinnati. So, I'm just being a supportive parent. And I do my own landscaping, which I'm very proud of."

Melton: "I live on the West Side near the United Center. I am a full-time dad. I have two kids, 13 and 2, that take up a lot of my time. I'm still very involved in the community with the Bears. Just enjoying life."

Edinger: "I currently live in St. Augustine, Florida, working with a wine and spirits distributor managing pretty much from the panhandle all the way down to South Florida."

What was your most memorable moment with the Bears?

Fencik: "It's hard to say the '85 season wasn't the culmination. I was the oldest defensive player in [Super Bowl XX] for the Bears. Walter [Payton] was the oldest offensive player. And you realize that you've really paid your dues and how special this could be. But you also know all it takes is one critical injury to a quarterback and things could go differently. What we learned in '84 was that there's a process and you need to learn from your mistakes and defeats. And then in '85 everybody was so focused. In our first offseason meeting with [coach Mike] Ditka, he basically said that second isn't good enough. That really focused us and we recognized that this really was an opportunity and you're not going to get a lot of those."

Howard: "Winning the NFC North my last year here (in 2018). My rookie year we only won three games, so to go from that to that, and we were so close. I felt like we could have won it all if a few things would have went our way."

Colvin: "Every day was a memory for me. I still have photos that I used to take and get developed. It was a scrapbook that I had of our rookie training camp. Just being able to reconnect with those guys and walk back in this room and not be like we missed a beat and I can pick up on everything we talked about 25 years ago, it's amazing."

Melton: "Playing defense, you always remember your first sack. My first sack on Brett Favre was probably up there in memory. And then almost getting to the Super Bowl is another one because I cried a lot. That's stuck in my head. That's why no one likes the Packers."

Edinger: "The 2001 season was huge when we went to the playoffs, won the division, the last year of the NFC Central. That was really memorable. And then, personally, any game-winning kick that helped the team walk off the field."

Why was playing for the Bears so special?

Howard: "Just the history. It's a storied franchise and being a running back, I followed a lot of greats, especially Walter Payton, Gale Sayers, even Matt Forte and Thomas Jones. You had a lot to live up to. It's pressure, but it's a pressure that you accept."

Colvin: "Being one of the founding members of the league, that's No. 1. The tradition, the people of the city of Chicago and the area that you represent when you put the jersey on, their struggle and the fight that they go through every single day, they're hard-working, they're blue-collar. There's always going to be tradition when it comes to defense in Chicago and that's one of the things I am proud of. You think about guys that came before me like Otis Wilson, Richard Dent and Mike Singletary. When me, Warrick [Holdman] and Brian [Urlacher] were sitting in the meeting room, we would see these guys on the wall and say, 'these are the guys we want to be like.' I'll always and forever be grateful for the opportunity I had to be here."

Melton: "Just the history here, the city, the pride of Chicago. They love football here. And you can feel it through ownership all the way up. They want to win, care about winning and when the team is winning, the city is on fire. There's nothing like it. I went to a couple other teams after the Bears, and there's nothing like winning in Chicago. This organization is amazing. It's definitely my favorite team I played for."

What excites you most about the current team?

Fencik: "Seeing not just the offense but a head coach who is demanding a lot of his players and not afraid to let the fans know that there is a standard. And just recognizing in my mind that we really do have a good, potentially great quarterback. That is the only thing on offense that really matters if you're going to get to the Super Bowl."

Edinger: "The energy, being able to see the locker room energy, and just knowing that the coach and the team are all in. They're willing to do whatever they have to do to win."