Indianapolis Colts

• 1. Introduction

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  The Indianapolis Colts have been playing professional football since 1953, first in Baltimore and then, after a midnight move in 1984, in Indiana. Forty-five million people watched their 1958 championship game, then the largest television audience ever to witness a football match. A Jim O'Brien field goal with five seconds left won them a Super Bowl. A midnight convoy of Mayflower moving vans stole them from an entire city. What follows is the story of how a franchise born in Baltimore, shaped by some of the most celebrated players in football history, became a cornerstone of Indianapolis and one of the NFL's most decorated clubs.

• 2. From Baltimore to Baltimore

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  Carroll Rosenbloom paid for the remains of a franchise that had already traveled a remarkable distance before arriving in Maryland. The team he purchased in 1953 traced its lineage through the Dallas Texans, the New York Yanks, and the Boston Yanks of 1944. Before that, the franchise had operated as the Brooklyn Tigers, and before that, the Dayton Triangles, one of the original NFL clubs, established in 1913, even before the league itself formally existed. The NFL considers the Texans and the 1953 Colts to be legally separate teams, making Indianapolis technically a 1953 expansion club.

  The new Baltimore Colts began humbly. Their first season produced a 3-9 record under head coach Keith Molesworth, and the franchise did not record its first winning season until 1957. That modest beginning made what followed all the more striking. The name the team chose honored Baltimore's own history of horse breeding and racing, and the horseshoe emblem that moved to its permanent helmet position in 1957 became one of the most recognized symbols in professional sports.

• 3. The Greatest Game

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  In 1958, head coach Weeb Ewbank and quarterback Johnny Unitas drove the Colts to a 9-3 record and the NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants. The Giants had been the dominant club in professional football; they had already beaten the Colts in the regular season. What happened next is still debated as the most consequential game in the sport's history. The Colts defeated the Giants 23-17 in the first championship game ever decided in overtime, watched by 45 million television viewers.

  The 1959 season produced a 9-3 record and another championship over the Giants. Back-to-back titles interrupted what had been the Giants' era of dominance in the league. Don Shula replaced Ewbank in 1963, and in his second season the Colts went 12-2, only to lose the NFL Championship to the Cleveland Browns 27-0. The hard lessons of that shutout sharpened the team's edge.

• 4. Namath's Guarantee

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  In 1968, the Colts won their third NFL championship after trouncing the Cleveland Browns 34-0, a performance so commanding that many in the sports media named them among the greatest professional football teams ever assembled. They entered Super Bowl III favored by 18 points over the New York Jets, a team from the rival American Football League. Jets quarterback Joe Namath publicly guaranteed a victory. The Jets, coached by Weeb Ewbank, the very man who had built the Colts' championship teams in the 1950s, won 16-7. The upset remains cited as perhaps the most dramatic result in Super Bowl history.

  Two years later, under new head coach Don McCafferty, Baltimore rebounded. The 1970 Colts went 11-2-1, beat the Oakland Raiders 27-17 in the first-ever AFC Championship Game, and defeated the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 on a Jim O'Brien field goal with five seconds remaining in Super Bowl V. It was the franchise's fourth NFL championship and its first Super Bowl title.

• 5. The Midnight Move

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  Carroll Rosenbloom traded the Colts to Robert Irsay on the 13th of July 1972, receiving the Los Angeles Rams in return. The Irsay years brought instability. Johnny Unitas was traded to the San Diego Chargers after the 1972 season. The team endured nine consecutive losing seasons beginning in 1978. In 1981, the defense allowed an NFL-record 533 points. In 1982, the offense was so dysfunctional that in one game against the Buffalo Bills, the Colts never crossed midfield. Stanford quarterback John Elway was selected with the first overall pick in 1983, but Elway refused to play in Baltimore and forced a trade to Denver.

  Irsay had been negotiating with other cities. Indianapolis, under mayors Richard Lugar and then William Hudnut, had built the Hoosier Dome specifically to attract an NFL franchise. When the Maryland General Assembly introduced a bill to seize the team by eminent domain, Irsay moved quickly. Moving vans from Indianapolis-based Mayflower Transit arrived overnight at the Maryland training complex on the morning of the 29th of March, 1984. Workers loaded everything by midday and the trucks headed for Indiana. The Baltimore Colts' Marching Band scrambled to retrieve their uniforms and equipment before they too were shipped out. A settlement in March 1986 dismissed all related lawsuits and committed the Colts to supporting a new NFL team for Baltimore.

  Indianapolis responded with enthusiasm. Over 143,000 requests for season tickets arrived in just two weeks.

• 6. Manning and the Modern Era

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  Bill Polian was hired as general manager in 1997, and Jim Irsay, who had assumed principal ownership after his father Robert died in January of that year, approved selecting Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, son of New Orleans Saints legend Archie Manning, with the first overall pick in the 1998 draft. Manning's first season was difficult: he threw 28 interceptions, the most in the league that year, though he also passed for 3,739 yards and 26 touchdowns and was named to the NFL All-Rookie First Team.

  The Colts improved steadily. After drafting running back Edgerrin James in 1999, the team went 13-3 and won their first division title since 1987. Tony Dungy replaced head coach Jim Mora after the 2001 season and guided the Colts to a 92-33 record over seven seasons. In 2005, Manning and receiver Marvin Harrison broke the NFL record for touchdowns by a quarterback and receiver tandem. The 2005 team finished 14-2, the best record in the league that year and the best in franchise history for a 16-game schedule.

  The 2006 season brought the franchise its second Super Bowl title. The Colts overcame a 21-3 first-half deficit against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game to win 38-34, then defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI. At the completion of the decade, the Colts had accumulated 115 regular-season wins from 2000 through 2009, the most of any team in the NFL during that span, with a winning percentage of .719.

  Manning's tenure ended on the 8th of March, 2012, when Jim Irsay announced he was releasing the quarterback after 13 seasons. Manning had spent the entire 2011 season sidelined following surgery, and the Colts had finished 2-14. His number 18 jersey was retired on the 8th of October, 2017. The Colts' all-time passing record belongs to Manning at 54,828 yards.

• 7. Lucas Oil and the Legacy

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  The Colts moved from the RCA Dome into Lucas Oil Stadium at the start of the 2008 season, after the city of Indianapolis and Jim Irsay had agreed to a stadium deal in December 2004 estimated at roughly one billion dollars including Convention Center upgrades. Lucas Oil Products paid an estimated $122 million for the naming rights over 20 years. The stadium seats 63,000 for football, can be reconfigured for 70,000 or more for larger events, covers 1.8 million square feet across seven levels, and features a retractable roof. It hosted Super Bowl XLVI for the 2011 season. Since 1987, the Colts have also served as the host team for the NFL Scouting Combine.

  On the 21st of May, 2025, Jim Irsay died at the age of 65. His three daughters subsequently inherited equal ownership stakes. His oldest daughter, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, became principal owner and CEO. The franchise now carries six retired numbers for players who wore a Colts uniform across both cities, including number 19 for Johnny Unitas and number 18 for Peyton Manning, two quarterbacks whose careers together span more than five decades of the game's history. Adam Vinatieri, who kicked for the Colts from 2006 through 2019, is scheduled for Hall of Fame induction in 2026.