Baltimore Colts
The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team based in Baltimore, United States from 1953 to 1983, when its owner Robert Irsay moved the franchise to Indianapolis. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It was the second incarnation of the Baltimore Colts, the first having played for three years in the All-America Football Conference and one in the National Football League. The Baltimore Colts played their home games at Memorial Stadium.
Franchise history
AAFC Baltimore Colts
As the result of a fan contest in Baltimore, won by Charles Evans of Middle River in suburban eastern Baltimore County, the team was renamed the "Baltimore Colts". On September 7, 1947, wearing the green and silver uniforms, the Colts, under Head Coach Cecil Isbell, won their initial All-America Football Conference game in the A.A.F.C.'s second season, 16–7, over the Brooklyn Dodgers.Home site for the new AAFC games in "The Monumental City" was the old 1922 Municipal Stadium. The football team concluded its inaugural season before a record Baltimore crowd of 51,583 by losing to the New York Yankees, 21–7. The Colts finished with a 2–11–1 record, good for a fourth-place finish in the Eastern Division of the A.A.F.C. The Colts completed the 1948 season with a 7–8 record, tying the Buffalo Bills for the division title. The Colts compiled a 1–11 mark in their third season of 1949. Y. A. Tittle, later to gain Hall of Fame status a decade later with the NFL's New York Giants, was the Colts starting quarterback.
After four years of inter-league rivalry, competition, and player contract raiding, the A.A.F.C. and N.F.L. merged in 1950, and the Colts joined the reorganized new NFL, along with the San Francisco 49ers and the Cleveland Browns. After posting a 1–11 record for the second consecutive year, the NFL franchise of just one season was dissolved by the League on January 18, 1951. But many Baltimore fans protested the loss of their team and continued to support the marching band and fan club, both of which remained in operation and worked for the team's revival.
After two seasons without professional football, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell challenged the City of Baltimore under Mayor Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro Jr., in December 1952 to sell 15,000 season tickets within six weeks in order to re-enter the NFL. That 15,000-ticket quota was reached in just four weeks and three days.
Dallas Texans
The 1953 iteration of the Baltimore Colts traces its original roots to the Dayton Triangles of the NFL, and eventually the New York Yanks who played in Yankee Stadium in 1950 and 1951. Owner Ted Collins then turned the money-losing franchise back to the league, which sold it to Texan oil millionaire Giles Miller.Miller moved the team to Dallas, where it played the 1952 NFL season as the Dallas Texans, with team colors of blue and white. This marked the first expansion of the NFL into Texas and the southern part of the United States. Fans stayed away from the bad Texans team in droves and on November 14, 1952, the Texans owner returned ownership of the NFL during mid-season.
On January 23, 1953, with the encouragement of the city's civic and business leaders, under the principal ownership of Carroll Rosenbloom, the NFL sold the assets of the defunct Dallas Texans franchise to Baltimore where, keeping the "Colts" nickname, the Texans team colors of blue and white were used. This is the franchise that exists today in Indianapolis in the modern National Football League.
In Baltimore
1953–1967: Johnny Unitas era
In 1953, the second incarnation of the Baltimore Colts took the field for the first time at Memorial Stadium, on September 27 to face off against the Chicago Bears. The Colts would go on to win the game 13–9 and stun the Bears. The team's lack of experience showed as the team finished 3–9. In 1955, the Colts had 12 rookies make the team. In 1956, quarterback George Shaw went down with a serious injury in the fourth game of the season. The Colts' unproven backup, Johnny Unitas, would go on to win half the remaining eight games to give the Colts a record of 5–7 for the season.The Colts won their first NFL Championship in 1958, in a game widely known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played" for its dramatic conclusion. Quarterback Johnny Unitas marched the Colts downfield in sudden death overtime and Alan Ameche scored the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run. Much of the credit for Baltimore's success went to Hall of Famers Johnny Unitas, halfback Lenny Moore, and wide receiver Raymond Berry.
After the Colts' first NFL championship, the team once again posted a 9–3 record during the 1959 season and once again defeated the Giants in the NFL Championship Game to claim their second title in back to back fashion. After the two championships in 1958 and 1959, the Colts did not return to the NFL Championship for four seasons. In 1963, Don Shula succeeded Ewbank as head coach. In Shula's second season, the Colts compiled a 12–2 record, but lost 27–0 to the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship. In 1965 the Colts played the Green Bay Packers in a playoff to determine who would go to the NFL Championship game. The Colts were leading 10–7 over the Green Bay Packers with two minutes left to play when the Packers' kicker, Don Chandler seemed to barely miss a field goal. The referee called it good and the Packers went on to win the game in overtime. The error precipitated changes to the rules: the NFL decided two referees would judge future field goals, and that the uprights should be raised by ten feet. In 1968 the Colts returned with the continued leadership of Unitas and Shula and went on to win the Colts' third NFL Championship and made an appearance in Super Bowl III. In 1968, Unitas was injured and replaced by Earl Morrall who became the league's MVP.
1968–1972: Merger and Super Bowl V
Leading up to the Super Bowl and following the 34–0 trouncing of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship, many were calling the 1968 Colts team one of the "greatest pro football teams of all time" and were favored by 18 points against their counterparts from the American Football League, the New York Jets. The Colts were stunned by the Jets, who won the game 16–7 in the first Super Bowl victory for the young AFL. The result of the game surprised many in the sports media as Joe Namath and Matt Snell led the Jets to the Super Bowl victory under head coach Weeb Ewbank, who had previously won two NFL Championships with the Colts.Rosenbloom of the Colts, Art Modell of the Browns, and Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to have their teams join the ten AFL teams in the AFC as part of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. Rosenbloom hired AFL expert and hugely successful General Manager Don Klosterman who was the architect of both the KC Chiefs' Super Bowl '60s victory teams, the Oilers turnaround from bottom dweller to division champion in '67, and the original Chargers' personnel man whose teams took 2nd the first two years in the new AFL and won the AFL in 1963. The Colts immediately went on a rampage in the new league, as new head coach Don McCafferty led the 1970 team to an 11–2–1 regular-season record, winning the AFC East title. In the first round of the NFL Playoffs, the Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals 17–0; one week later in the first-ever AFC Championship Game, they beat the Oakland Raiders 27–17. Baltimore went on to win the first post-merger Super Bowl, defeating the NFC's Dallas Cowboys 16–13 on a Jim O'Brien field goal with five seconds left to play. The victory gave the Colts their fourth NFL championship and first Super Bowl victory. Following the championship, the Colts returned to the playoffs in 1971, winning their opening playoff game against the Browns 20–3, but lost in the second AFC Championship Game in Miami 21–0.