Indianapolis Colts History

In 1953, the city of Baltimore was awarded a new National Football League franchise. The team was nicknamed the Colts, the second pro football club to have that name in a seven year period.

In 1947, a Baltimore team was founded in the All-America Football Conference. Three years later, the Colts became a NFL member. The plan failed and the franchise was disbanded after the 1950 season.

Baltimore was presented with a second chance for an NFL team three seasons later when the Dallas Texans franchise was cancelled by the league. NFL Commissioner Bert Bell challenged the city to sell 15,000 season tickets within six weeks. The successful sale worked, and on January 23, 1953, Carroll Rosenbloom became owner of the new Baltimore Colts.

In 1954, Weeb Ewbank was named the Colts head coach and he began building a program that put his team over .500 for the first time in 1957. The Colts didn’t have another losing season for the next 14 years.

Led by a great young quarterback named Johnny Unitas, and a strong supporting cast that included such future Hall of Famers as Artie Donovan, Gino Marchetti, Raymond Berry, Lenny More, and Jim Parker, the Colts won NFL championships in both 1958 and 1959 and again in 1968.

The 1958 NFL title game against the Giants, played before the largest television audience ever, up to that time, did much to increase fan support for pro football. With Unitas leading long drives, the Colts won 23-17 in overtime.

Both the Colts and Ewbank were involved in a second game 10 years later that would captivate fans when the New York Jets stunned the heavily favorite Baltimore Colts, 16-7.

Under Don Shula, who replaced Ewbank in 1963, the Colts won NFL western conference championships in 1963 and 1968. In 1970 the Colts won the AFC title and defeated the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V.

Baltimore, with Ted Marchibroda as coach, won three straight divisional titles in 1975, 1976 and 1977. The franchise fell on hard times and had a record of 19-53-1 in five years between 1978 and 1982.

Robert Irsay, who acquired the Los Angeles Rams franchise in 1972, made an historical trade of teams with Carroll Rosenbloom that year. Twelve years later on March 28, 1984, Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis.

In 2006, under head coach Tony Dungy, the Colts stormed their way to the championship game. With veteran players Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, the Colts defeated the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI, 29-17.