Indianapolis Colts

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 - administrator

Franchise History

The Pre-Colts Era
The Colts franchise was officially created in 1953, but the Colts can trace its history to before the NFL even began. Their earliest predecessor was the Dayton Triangles. Here’s a timeline of the changes they went through:

1930 - the Dayton Triangles moved to and renamed to the Brooklyn Dodgers
1944 - changed names to Brooklyn Tigers
1945 - merged with the Boston Yanks. The franchise was cancelled later in the year and the temporary merger with the Boston Yanks is made permanent.
1949 – the Boston Yanks move to New York and become the New York Yanks
1952 – New York Yanks move to Dallas and become the Dallas Texans
1953 – the Dallas Texans franchise was moved to Baltimore keeping the “Colts” nickname and the blue and white team colors.

The Beginning: Baltimore Colts (1953 – 1970)
Colts played their opening game was against the Chicago Bears on September 27, 1953. They defeated the bears with a score of 13-9, which provided optimism for the team, but they ended the season 3 wins to 9 losses. In 1958, the Colts made it to the Super Bowl and were scheduled to play the New York Giants for the Championship game at Yankee Stadium. The Colts were leading 14-3 at the end of half time but the Giants caught up in the second half. At the end of the 4th quarter, the game was tied at 17-17 and for the first time in NFL history they would have to go to sudden death in overtime. The game ended in a Colts victory after Alan Ameche ran in from the 1 yard line into the end zone. In 1959, the Colts played well and found themselves in the Super Bowl for a second consecutive time. Also for a second consecutive time they were facing the New York Giants but this time at Memorial Stadium. The defensive game resulted in a score of 9-7 Giants lead by the end of the 3rd quarter, but in the forth quarter quarterback Johnny Unitas lead the team to 24 unanswered points and the Colts won the Super Bowl for a second time. In 1964, the Colts went on a 10 game winning streak, but only after losing their opening game to the Minnesota Vikings. Unitas won MVP that year with 2,824 passing yards, but they lost in the Super Bowl by the Cleveland Browns 27-0. In 1968, with Unitas out with an elbow injury, back up quarterback Earl Morrall was brought in to take the Colts the Super Bowl. He would take the Colts to a 31-1 season, winning the NFL MVP award and advancing to the Super Bowl. Colts were heavily favored by 18 points going against the New York Jets, but in a huge upset the Colts lost to the Jets 16-7.

1970-1983
In 1970 the Colts ended the season with an 11-2-1 record and would advance to Super Bowl V against the Dallas Cowboys. By the end of the first half the Colts would return to their locker rooms down 13-6. Half way through the second half the Colts came back to tie the game with a touchdown. The Cowboys made a costly mistake of fumbling the ball to the Colts, which eventually lead to the winning field goal ending the game 16-13 Colts.

Starting 1972 things started to go downhill, McCafferty was fired as head coach after a 1-4 start and the Colts would finished the season rest of the season 5-9 under John Sandusky. Head coach Howard Schnellenberger was hired for the 1973 season, but after a record of 4-10 and a 0-3 in 1974, he was fired. Joe Thomas was hired as the replacement head coach but was let go after finishing with a 2-12 season. Ted Marchibroda was brought on as the new head coach and had a shaky start with a 1-4 in 1975, but the Colts rallied for a 7 game winning streak finishing the season with a 10-4 record. They lost in the Divisional Playoffs against the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-10. The next year the Colts finished with a terrific season of 11-3 but lost again to the Pittsburgh Steelers 40-14. They were once again defeated in 1977 against the Oakland Raiders 37-31. Marchibroda was fired after two more losing seasons.

In 1982, while the Colts struggles so did attendance and Colts finished with one of the worse seasons of NFL with a 0-9-1 record. On December 18, 1983 without the knowledge of the team or fans, Colts would play its final game in Baltimore.

The Move
In 1984, owner of the Colts, Robert Irsay, moved the team to Indianapolis as a result of some discontentment. Robert felt that even though the Colts had made the playoffs for three straight years from 1975-1977, there has still been little progress on the aging Memorial Stadium. And the city had refused the request for renovation funds on the stadium. Indianapolis had just completed the brand new Hoosier Dome.

1984 - 1995
Frank Kush lead the Colts as head coach in 1984, but ended with a record of 4-12. Rod Dowhower was next in line as head coach but after losing two seasons he was replaced by Ron Meyer. The Colts ended the season in 1987 with a 9-6 record clinching the AFC East title but losing the divisional playoff game to the Cleveland Browns. In 1988, they finished the season 9-7, but did not make the playoffs. The Colts became the third consecutive team to finish a season at 1-15 in 1991. They hired Ted Marchibroda in 1992 and finished the season 9-7 a big turnaround from the previous season but wasn’t enough for them to make the playoffs. The next year the Colts finished with a 4-12 but improved in 1994 with a record of 8-8. The Colts acquired Craig Erickson, starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 1995. He advanced the Colts to the playoffs ending the regular season 9-7. With a couple from behind wins, the Colts advanced their way to the conference Championship game, but lost against the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-16 stopping the Colts short of the Super Bowl.

1996 - 2001
In 1996, the Colts drafted Marvin Harrison and began the season with a promising start of 4-0. They ended up the season 9-7 due to a number of injuries, but were still able to make it to the playoffs. They played the Steelers who unfortunately destroyed them 42-14. In 1997 there was a dispute over ownership. Robert Irsay had suffered a stroke the year before and now there was a legal battle for control of the team between Irsay’s wife Nancy and his son, Colts general manager Jim Irsay. Jim ended up winning the legal battle but did not have a good year. The Colts ended up only winning three games that season. In 1998 the Colts used their first draft pick to select quarterback Peyton Manning from the University of Tennessee . They finished the 3-13, but success was in the near future. In 1999 Manning lead the Colts to tie the franchise record for most wins at 13-3. Unfortunately, they lost in the first round of the playoffs against the Titans 19-16. In 2000, the Colts barely made the playoffs by winning their last 3 games of the season to earn a wild card spot. All hope was lost though when they lost the game 23-17 to the Miami Dolphins. The next year Colts finished the season 6-10.

2002 – Present
The Colts hired Tony Dungy in 2002 who was recently fired from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Even though Manning threw 19 interceptions that year, the Colts still earned a spot in the playoffs finishing the season 10-6. In the first game against the Jets, the Jets shut out the Colts 41-0. In 2003 the Colts finished 14-5 for the season and Manning won his first playoff game ever against the Denver Broncos 41-10. They advanced even further by defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 38-31. There dreams were eventually crushed by the New England Patriots 24-14. The Colts had a strong season in 2004 as well, winning the AFC South again with 12-4 record, but was once against stopped by the Patriots in the Divisional Playoffs 20-3. In 2005, Dungy lead the Colts to 14 wins a franchise record. However they didn’t capitalize on the 14-2 record by losing their first playoff game to the Steelers 21-18. 2006 was a big year for the Colts. They started the year winning 9 consecutive games becoming the first team in NFL history to achieve these two years in a row. They finished the season 12-4 and advance to the playoffs. The Colts advanced to there second AFC Champion game and were able to defeat their archrival the New England Patriots 38-34. The Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 on February 4, 2007 in Dolphin Stadium winning Super Bowl XLI. Peyton Manning was awarded Super Bowl MVP and Indianapolis became the first “dome team” to win a Super Bowl in an outdoor stadium, the first to win in rain, and the first to win after having the worse rushing defense in the league during regular season. In 2008, the Colts began playing at the newly completed Lucas Oil Stadium. They finished 12-4 but this was the first season since 2002 that the Colts did not win the AFC South title. They had a chance for the wild card spot but lost it to San Diego in the Wild card Playoffs in overtime 23-17. Head coach Dungy retired from NFL on January 12, 2009. His successor, Jim Caldwell, was hired as new head coach.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, celebrating with teammate Tarik Glenn, right, led his team to a 27-20 victory over the Patriots.

The Playing Field: Lucas Oil Stadium

For twenty-four years the Colts played at the RCA Dome, but starting 2008 they found a new home. In the fall of 2008, the Colts moved to their new home Lucas Oil Stadium. The stadium is made up of seven levels consisting of 63,000 seats for Football and a retractable roof. The seats can also be reconfigured to fit 70,000 for NCAA basketball and concerts. It’s 1,800,000 square feet with 58 permanent concession stands, 90 portable concession stands, 13 escalators, 11 passenger elevators, 800 restrooms, high definition scoreboards and 142 luxury suites. The stadium is scheduled to host the 2012 Super Bowl.

Logos and Uniforms

The Colts logo and uniform debuted in 1953 and has basically remained the same. The helmet is still white with a speed blue horseshoe logo. The pants are white with blue strips along the sides. The team’s jerseys are blue with white shoulder strips or white with blue shoulder strips.