History of the Indianapolis Colts

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2017)

The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The organization began play in 1953 as the Baltimore Colts with the team located in Baltimore, Maryland; it relocated to Indianapolis following the 1983 season.

Carroll Rosenbloom brought an NFL franchise to Baltimore in 1953 and owned the team until 1972 when he traded the franchise to Robert Irsay.^[1] The Baltimore Colts won the NFL Championship in 1958, 1959 and 1968, with the Colts losing to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. The Colts won their first Super Bowl title in 1970 over the Dallas Cowboys. During this time the organization was led by star quarterback Johnny Unitas until 1973 when he was traded to the San Diego Chargers.^[2] Following disappointing seasons and poor fan attendance, the franchise moved to Indianapolis in 1984. While in Baltimore the team achieved ten postseason appearances and won four championships.

The Colts organization struggled in the early days in Indianapolis, compiling an 88–135 record from 1984 to 1997. During that time the Colts were led by seven different head coaches and seventeen different starting quarterbacks. The organization made three postseason appearances during the time, with the most success coming in 1995 and 1996 under quarterback Jim Harbaugh. The 1995 team made it to the AFC Championship Game, which they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Robert Irsay remained the principal owner of the Colts until his death in 1997 when the franchise was turned over to his son Jim Irsay, who is the current owner of the team.

Following a 3–13 season in 1997, the organization drafted quarterback Peyton Manning, who started for the Colts for thirteen seasons from 1998 until 2010. Under Manning, the Colts saw their greatest success and during his time with the team made 11 postseason appearances, with nine consecutive appearances from 2002 to 2010. The Colts won eight division titles during this time along with two conference championships in 2006 and 2009. The Colts won their second Super Bowl title overall and their first while in Indianapolis during the 2006 season. From 1998 to 2011, the Colts were coached by Jim Mora, Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell. Following a 2–14 record in 2011 when Manning had been sidelined for the whole season, the Peyton Manning era came to an end in 2012, when the organization released him following multiple neck surgeries. The Colts began to rebuild and drafted quarterback Andrew Luck; Luck retired in 2019.