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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Denver, Colorado (via Gaithersburg, MD)
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    1,166

    I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    What was it like growing up as Baltimore Colts fan as a kid?

    Just go...





  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Bridgeville,DE
    Posts
    14,592

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    For me ...having the Colts started my love of Football. My dad was a Huge Colts fan. We went to games. Every Sunday was Football. Church in the morning then come home to family and friends for Colts Football. I remember waking up the morning they left and being soo devastated. I was like 11? The old Colts players were soo cool to meet. Johnny U, Artie Donovan, Mackey , Bubba Smith, Gino. Just to me really regular guys. Don’t get it twisted ...the Colts were not a good team then. I think Irsay made them suck so attendance would drop so he could move them. Still have my ticket stub from the last home game I went to


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk





  3. #3

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    I remember seeing Lenny Moore and Jim Parker almost every week. Two real cool dudes. Colts sucked. They might have been worse than the Browns!





  4. Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    I have lots of memories, too. I have to admit one of them is remembering seeing defenders attempt to bring down John Mackey. Or seeing 6'8" Bubba Smith bear down on QB's. Or Lenny Moore run....ahhh…...too many memories to mention.





  5. #5

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    In the late 50s, kids in elementary school would join together in singing the Colts fight song during lunch period.





  6. #6

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    Quote Originally Posted by bst3975 View Post
    In the late 50s, kids in elementary school would join together in singing the Colts fight song during lunch period.
    They left when I was a senior in high school. It was awful. The years they were gone were personally some hard ones for me. Right when things were starting to fire on all cylinders in my life we got the Ravens and life was really good again. It's like the universe was right again.

    Going to memorial stadium and parking at my Dad's "special" spot in the neighborhood north of the stadium is a memory I'll never forget and then running to keep up with him because he was a bit of a speed walker. Once I was old enough to go a lot they were in a prolonged slump as a franchise but I always had hope and believed their new draft picks would turn the team around. I was late to becoming a die hard fan compared to my brothers but once I was on board I would pore over all the box scores and stats looking for any information that would tell me how all the players were doing.

    It was great being a Colt fan in the Washington suburbs because you felt special/different than all the losers that rooted for the Redskins, who also sucked at that time.





  7. #7

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    I can't relate personally but my mom was PISSED. She used to regale me with stories of Irsay's deception and assholery. I can only imagine the heartbreak.
    Last edited by moviemaniacx; 05-21-2018 at 02:56 AM. Reason: I can't spell apparently
    "Put your goggles on, 'cause there's gonna be blood and guts everywhere!" - SSSr





  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Franklin County, PA
    Posts
    3,334

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    My interest in football began a year or two after my interest in baseball. Neither of my parents ever cared for sports, so my interest was initially piqued by my classmates in elementary school during the late 60's. First I became obsessed by the Orioles, then about a year later, the Colts.

    Sadly, my first year of fandom culminated in the upset loss to the Jets in SB III. Fortunately, the Colts redeemed themselves two years later by winning SB V. That was a remarkable feat because they turned the ball over SEVEN times and still eked out a win. But I don't really remember the turnovers. Mostly just two plays stick in my mind - the twice-tipped pass that John Mackey took to the house and Jim O'Brien's game-winning field goal in the closing seconds.

    I remained a huge Colts fan during the Bert Jones years (still the 2nd best all-time Baltimore QB behind Unitas in my opinion). Those were great times but the Colts never went far in the playoffs because of a weak secondary that got torched repeatedly by the likes of Bradshaw and Stabler in the post season.

    Injuries ultimately did in Jones' career, and things really started to go downhill in the Frank Kush era. Even so, I was greatly pissed when Irsay pulled his middle-of-the-night getaway stunt. I pretty much took a 20+ year hiatus from football. My interest in baseball also waned. Even when the Ravens came into being I didn't renew interest right away. That didn't happen until 2006, just in time to see them lose that dreadful playoff game against, of course, the INDY Colts. That single game renewed my hatred of Irsay's Colts, a feeling that really didn't mellow until the Ravens won SB 47. Even today I dislike the Colts, but the feelings aren't so strong now.

    I'm once again a fan of Baltimore's NFL franchise. They're just named after a different animal now. For whatever reason, though, my interest in baseball never returned.

    Looking back, one can in hindsight reflect on the phenomenon of how being a fan of any professional sport can become such a big part of one's life for such a long time.





  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    where my head touches the pillow
    Posts
    45,511
    Blog Entries
    4

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    I didn't either I just heard stories from my pops and guys in my family back then, you can tell even today it still stings for them when they talk about it.





  10. #10

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    The late 1950s were a magical time and featured an uncommon cluster of great players, each distinct in his own way: Unitas, Moore, Parker, Berry on offense and Marchetti, Donovan and Big Daddy Lipscomb on defense. The team was relatively weak at linebacker and did not have a good kicker, but the stars elevated the team to an exciting level. The 1960 team, which started 6-2 and got ravaged by injuries and fell to 6-6, had a better roster than either team in the championship game that year, Green Bay and Philadelphia.

    I was a kid in northern Virginia banging on the top of our black and white TV set, tweaking the rabbit ears, trying to get a good picture out of WMAR, channel 2. I remember being able to see Lenny Moore's spats through a fuzzy picture. Moore made the greatest catch I ever saw, with 11 seconds left in 1960 against Detroit and to take the lead, beating Night Train Lane on a dive in the end zone on a long ball fron Unitas. Lenny was horizontal when he made the catch, not far above the ground. The ball was below his body when it hit his hands. (The Lions won on the next possession, on a long bomb to Jim Gibbons, which was caught because Carl Tassef went for the interception and missed, instead of easily knocking the ball away. Coach Weeb Ewbank never forgave Tassef for that.)

    The great comback against SF in 1958 and the two championship games in 1958 and 1959 were priceless. I am always grateful for those, which no one can ever take away from you.
    Last edited by rhapsody; 05-21-2018 at 01:19 PM.
    "Flacco is driving the ball in that wind....."

    (AFCCG, January 2013)





  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Franklin County, PA
    Posts
    3,334

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    Quote Originally Posted by rhapsody View Post
    Moore made the greatest catch I ever saw, with 11 seconds left in 1960 against Detroit and to take the lead, beating Night Train Lane on a dive in the end zone on a long ball fron Unitas. Lenny was horizontal when he made the catch, not far above the ground. The ball was below his body when it hit his hands. (The Lions won on the next possession, on a long bomb to Jim Gibbons
    That was a little before my time, but sounded like a great football moment. So I went onto YouTube and found it memorialized here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13cyi0MV_Zg





  12. #12

    Re: I didnt grow up with the Colts.

    My entire family would head to my grandparents house every Sunday for the Colts games & a big family dinner every Sunday. I would go w/my dad & uncle to 2-3 games/year & then we'd meet the family back at my grandparents afterward. Would park around Lake Montibello & walk to the stadium, with lots of other fans. The walk to the stadium was like a tailgate party....talking about how the Colts were gonna win that day. (They rarely did) We had QBs like Marty Domres, Bill Troupe, and....Bert Jones. I saw the last season here w/Unitas before he got shipped to San Diego. Then...there were some lean years, but the fan base was rabid. Unbelievable energy. When Irsay took over & started getting rid of good players for nothing, then flying to cities without a team & vowing to move the team, he alienated the fans. He was insane, evil and a lousy businessman. His own mother called him Satan. But...when I think Colts, I think about family & learning to love a team, my city & sports. Then...I say a quick F You to Irsay.





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