History - Baltimore
Three years after its first NFL franchise folded, Baltimore got another team, also known as the Colts. It came about because the Dallas Texans ran into serious financial problems during the 1952 season. The league took over the franchise and operated the Texans as a road team, meanwhile looking for a replacement.
In response to a Baltimore group headed by Carroll Rosenbloom, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell said the city could have a new franchise if 15,000 season tickets were sold in a six-week period, beginning in December of 1952. The quota was met in just over four weeks and the franchise was issued on January 23, 1953.
This was a new franchise, not a transfer of the bankrupt Dallas franchise. However, the new Colts were given first refusal on the contracts of former Dallas players. Only 13 of them made the squad, but among them were two future Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive linemen, Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan.
After going 3-9-0 under Keith Molesworth in their first season, the Colts hired Weeb Ewbank as head coach. He embarked on a patient rebuilding process that eventually brought Baltimore back-to-back NFL championships.
The team caught a major break in 1956. Needing a backup quarterback for starter George Shaw, Ewbank signed Johnny Unitas, who was playing for a semi-pro team in New Jersey after having been cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Shaw suffered a broken leg in the fourth game of the season, Unitas took over and embarked on his Hall of Fame career.
But Ewbank also surrounded Unitas with talent. Fullback Alan Ameche and end Raymond Berry had joined the team in 1955. Halfback Lenny Moore and defensive end Big Daddy Lipscomb arrived with Unitas in 1956, and Jim Parker solidified the offensive line in 1957, when the Colts had a winning record for the first time.
The following season, they won what has been called "the greatest game ever played." That's debatable, but certainly the Colts' victory over the New York Giants in the 1958 NFL championship game helped establish pro football as a major television sport. It was the first game ever to go into sudden death overtime. With the Giants leading 17-14, the Colts got the ball with less than two minutes left and Unitas drove them to New York's 13-yard line. A field goal with seven seconds remaining forced overtime.
After the Giants fell just short of a first down on the first possession of OT, Unitas again took the Colts down the field, 79 yards in 12 plays, and Ameche scored on a 1-yard plunge for a 23-17 win.
Baltimore repeated in 1959 despite a slow start. They were two games behind the San Francisco 49ers with five to play, but they won all five, including two against San Francisco, averaging 37 points a game in the process, to take the Western Conference title again.
The championship game was a rematch against the Giants. For three periods, it was another struggle. New York led, 9-7, when the fourth period began, but Unitas scored on a 4-yard run and then threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Richardson with 8:39 remaining. A 45-yard interception return by Johnny Sample two minutes later sealed the championship victory. A Colt field goal and a last-minute TD by the Giants made the final score 31-16.
The Colts' biggest problem during much of the 1960s is that they were in the same division as Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers, who won six division titles, five NFL championships, and the first two Super Bowls during the decade. However, the Colts did win two division championships and an NFL title.
Ewbank was fired after the 1962 season and replaced by Don Shula, who had been a defensive back with the team. Under Shula, the Colts won the division title with a 12-2 record in 1964 and came up against the Cleveland Browns in the NFL championship game. After a scoreless first half, the Browns exploded for 17 third-quarter points and went on to win, 27-0.
The following year, the Colts lost Unitas in the 12th game of the season and his backup, Gary Cuozzo, went down a week later. With halfback Tom Matte at quarterback, they beat the Rams in the final game of the season to tie the Packers for first place in the division, forcing a playoff game. It went into overtime, with the Packers winning, 13-10, on a disputed field goal.
In 1968, the NFL realigned into two conferences and four divisions. The Colts went 13-1 to win the Coastal Division title even though Unitas missed virtually all of the season with a bad elbow. Earl Morrall, acquired in a trade before the season, filled in more than capably, throwing 26 touchdown passes.
The Colts beat the Minnesota Vikings, 24-14, in their semi-final playoff game and then got revenge by whipping the Browns, 34-0, for the NFL championship. That sent them into Super Bowl III against the New York Jets and their former coach, Weeb Ewbank. Baltimore was heavily favored, but Jets' quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed a victory and his team delivered, taking a 16-7 win. It was the first time an AFL team had won the game.
The leagues merged before the 1970 season and the suddenly enlarged NFL was split into two conferences, the American and the National. Three former NFL teams, the Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers, agreed to join the former AFL teams in the American Football Conference. Meanwhile, Shula left Baltimore to become coach of the Miami Dolphins and was replaced by Don McCafferty, who guided the team to an 11-2-1 record and the AFC's Eastern Division title.
In the playoffs, the Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 17-0, and the Oakland Raiders, 27-17, to get to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years, where they were matched against the Dallas Cowboys. The outcome was different this time. In a game that was called by some the "Stumble Bowl" because the teams combined for 10 turnovers, Baltimore prevailed, 16-13, on a 32-yard field goal by Jim O'Brien with five seconds to go.
In the summer of 1972, owner Carroll Rosenbloom traded the Colts to Robert Irsay for the Los Angeles Rams, the only franchise trade in NFL history. Under Irsay and Coach Ted Marchibroda, the team had a brief period of success, winning division titles from 1975 through 1977. But the Colts went only 19-53-1 over the next five seasons, while Irsay periodically threatened to move the team if Baltimore didn't build a new stadium.
An 0-8-1 record during the strike-shortened 1982 season gave the Colts the first pick in the 1983 draft. They selected Stanford quarterback John Elway, although he had made it clear that he wouldn't play in Baltimore. Six days later, Elway was sent to the Denver Broncos for two players and two draft choices.
After winning four of their first six games and six of their first ten in 1983, the Colts lost five in a row and finished at 7-9. Attendance dropped correspondingly. The last two home games drew less than 30,000 fans and Irsay was again threatening to move.
A court decision gave him his opening. Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders, turned down by NFL owners in a bid to move to Los Angeles in 1981, had sued on the grounds that the league by-law requiring approval by a three-quarters vote was a violation of anti-trust laws. In 1982, a jury found that the by-law was indeed illegal.
In the middle of the night on March 28, 1984, moving vans lugged all the team's equipment from Baltimore to Indianapolis. Irsay made no public announcement of the move until after it was a fait accompli.
History - Indianapolis
Playing in the RCA Dome, the Indianapolis Colts generally drew bigger crowds than the Baltimore Colts had, but they didn't do much better on the field at first. After they lost their first 13 games in 1986, Ron Meyer took over as head coach and guided them to wins in their final three games.
Meyer took the Colts to the AFC Eastern Division title with a 9-7 record in 1987, but they lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Then they begin to slide downward again. Meyer was replaced by Rick Venturi after the Colts lost their first five games in 1991. They won only one of their remaining 11 games, so Venturi was fired and Ted Marchibroda was brought back the following season. Under Marchibroda and his successor, Lindy Infante, the team oscillated between mediocre and just plain bad for six years.
Marchibroda did give them one exciting season. Though they finished only 9-7, good for a second-place tie in the division in 1995, the Colts made the playoffs as a wildcard and upset the Chargers at San Diego and the Chiefs at Kansas City to reach the AFC championship game, where they were edged by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-16.
Things began to change in 1998. After going 3-13 under Infante the previous season, the Colts had the first choice in the NFL draft. They selected Peyton Manning, the All-American quarterback from Tennessee. They also brought in a new coach, Jim Mora. After another 3-13 season, they turned around completely to 13-3 in 1999. However, they lost to the Tennessee Titans in the first round of the playoffs.
As a wildcard team in 2000, they again lost in the first round. After the Colts missed the playoffs entirely in 2001, Mora was replaced by Tony Dungy. In Dungy's first season, they went 10-6 to finish second in the AFC South, but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs once again.
In 2003, they improved to a 12-4 record to win the division and finally got past the first playoff round, beating the Denver Broncos, 41-10. Then they advanced to the AFC championship game with a 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. However, the Colts were beaten by the Patriots, 24-14, at New England. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl.
After losing in the divisional playoffs the next two years, the Colts were often dismissed as a good regular-season team that choked in the post-season and Manning was widely viewed as a very good quarterback who simply couldn't win the big game.
That changed in 2006. After falling behind, 21-3, to the Patriots in the AFC championship game, the Colts rallied for a 38-34 win and then beat the Chicago Bears, 29-17, in the Super Bowl.
However, the Colts lost in the second round in 2007 and the first round in 2008, after which Dungy retired and was replaced by Jim Caldwell, who promptly guided the team to a 14-2 record and got them back into the Super Bowl. However, Indianapolis lost, 31-17, to the New Orleans Saints.
Plagued by injuries in 2010, the Colts still won their division but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Then they suffered the most devastating injury of all, losing Manning to neck surgery before the 2011 season. Without their quarterback, they struggled to a 2-14 record and Caldwell was fired.