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. 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. 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.

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.

NFL Baltimore Colts

The Baltimore Colts were the predecessor of the Indianapolis Colts, but they moved after the 1983 season due to a longstanding stadium dispute with the city of Baltimore.

Relocation to Indianapolis

In the 1970s, expansion of the NFL from 26 teams to 28, Indianapolis was one of ten cities considered for the two expansion teams. Despite the undoubted advantage of the metropolitan area's location at the junction of more major highways than any other metropolis, Indianapolis would be crossed off when the number of candidates was reduced from ten to four because it was clear the city had no remotely suitable stadium.

In 1979, Indianapolis community leaders created the Indiana Sports Corporation in order to attract major sports events to central Indiana. The next year, Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut appointed a committee to study the feasibility of building a new stadium that could serve as home to a pro football team and in 1982 construction on the Hoosier Dome (later renamed the RCA Dome) began. On December 18, 1983, the Colts played what would become their final home game in the city of Baltimore. 27,934 fans showed up, 516 more fans than the crowd that had turned out for their first home game in 1947. In February 1984, after relations between Irsay and the city of Baltimore had deteriorated significantly, Baltimore Mayor Schaefer asked the Maryland General Assembly to approve $15 million for renovation to Memorial Stadium. The legislature did not approve the request until the following spring, after the Colts' lease had expired,Stadiums of the NFL – Memorial Stadium and only half of that $15 million would go towards improvements that the Colts were seeking (The other half would be for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team). However, Baltimore reportedly did offer Irsay a generous $15 million loan at 6.5%, a guarantee of at least 43,000 tickets sold per game for six years, and the purchase of the team's Owings Mills training facility for $4 million. Despite numerous public reassurances that Irsay's ultimate desire was to remain in Baltimore, he nevertheless continued discussions with several cities hungry for an NFL franchise (New York City, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Jacksonville and Memphis) eventually narrowing the list of cities to two, Phoenix and Indianapolis. A real estate group in Phoenix, Arizona along with Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt and other top Arizona officials, had secretly met with Irsay early in January. Preliminary talks seemed promising, and another meeting was scheduled. But when word of a second scheduled meeting leaked out and was reported by the Baltimore media on the Friday before the Super Bowl, Irsay canceled. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, local Indianapolis real estate developer Robert Welch was spending his own time and funds to lobby the NFL to bring an expansion team to the city, with Welch and other investors as team owner. Indiana Pacers' owner Herb Simon contacted Colts officials in order to take negotiations between the club and Indianapolis to the next level. Mayor Hudnut then assigned deputy mayor David Frick to begin secret negotiations with Colts counsel Michael Chernoff. Colts owner Robert Irsay visited on February 23.

"He (Irsay) was visibly moved", former deputy mayor Dave Frick later said in commenting on Irsay's reaction upon entering the brand new domed stadium. "Emotionally, he was making the move."

Meanwhile, in Baltimore, the situation worsened. Eventually, the Maryland legislature intervened and on March 27, one of its chambers passed legislation giving the city of Baltimore the right to seize ownership of the team by eminent domain, an idea first floated in a memo written by Baltimore Mayoral Aide Mark Wasserman. Robert Irsay said his move was a direct result of the legislation. Colts counsel Michael Chernoff later said of the eminent domain bill: "They not only threw down the gauntlet, but they put a gun to his head and cocked it and asked, 'Want to see if it's loaded?' They forced him to make a decision that day." The city of Indianapolis offered the Colts owner a $12.5 million loan, a $4 million training complex, and the use of the brand new $77.5 million, 57,980 seat Hoosier Dome. After Irsay agreed to the deal, 15 trucks were dispatched to the team's Owings Mills, Maryland training complex at 2:00 am on March 29 because it was feared the franchise would be seized early the following morning. Workers loaded all of the team's belongings and the trucks left for Indianapolis. By 10:00 am, the Colts were completely gone from Baltimore. Each of the Mayflower trucks took a slightly different route on the way to Indianapolis. This was done to confuse the Maryland police, who might have been called on to stop the move. Each van was met at the Indiana state line by Indiana state troopers who escorted them to the Colts' new home in Indianapolis. Later John Moag Jr., chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, stated in sworn testimony before the U.S. Senate subcommittee responsible for the Fan Freedom and Community Protection Act: "It was the failure of our local [Baltimore] and state elected officials in Maryland to provide the Colts with a firm proposal for a new stadium that led Mr. Irsay to accept an offer from Indianapolis to play in a new dome in that city."

Baltimore Mayor Schaefer, who had been promised a call by Irsay if the team were to move, appeared on the front page of the Baltimore Sun in tears. After the Colts left, he placed the building of a new stadium at the top of his legislative agenda.

In moving the team, Irsay acted without the NFL's approval, but due to the NFL's court loss to Al Davis in his lawsuit to move the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles, the NFL was in no mood to try to stop Irsay from moving the Colts. Sportswriter Dave Anderson opined that,

Baltimore moves on Fans in Baltimore were not only heartbroken because of the loss of the team, but because of the loss of the team name. The Colts were named in honor of the city's Preakness Stakes and to acknowledge the hundreds of horse farms throughout the State of Maryland.

In elections that year, city voters voted 62 percent to 38 percent to repeal Question P, a 1974 amendment to the city's charter declaring "the 33rd Street stadium as a memorial to war veterans and prohibiting use of city funds for construction of any other stadium." The team's move triggered a flurry of legal activity. Later, in March 1986, representatives of Baltimore and the Colts organization reached a settlement under which all lawsuits regarding the relocation would be dismissed and the Colts would endorse a new NFL team for Baltimore. Nonetheless, many of the prominent old-time Colts players (many of whom had settled in the Baltimore area) chose to cut all ties to the relocated Colts team. Most notable and vocal among them was Johnny Unitas, who recognized himself solely as a player for the Baltimore Colts until the day he died.

Despite agreeing to do so in the settlement between the City of Baltimore and the Irsay family, the Irsay family refused to endorse Baltimore's bid for an NFL expansion franchise in 1993. This decision helped set in motion the relocation of the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore. On November 6, 1995, Browns owner Art Modell announced his intention to move Cleveland's team to Baltimore. The decision also triggered a flurry of legal activity. Finally, representatives of both cities and the NFL reached a settlement on February 9, 1996. It stipulated that the Browns’ name, colors, and history of the franchise were to remain in Cleveland. It kept the Browns legacy in Cleveland, and Modell took his players and organization to Baltimore, which would be officially regarded as an expansion team. After the Browns relocated to Baltimore, Modell offered the Irsay family $5 million for the rights to the Colts heritage. Jim Irsay replied that it would take at least $50 million to relinquish the Colts name. Therefore, the new Baltimore team was named the Ravens after a fan vote. The Ravens have since won Super Bowls following the 2000 and 2012 seasons.

1984–1997: Early struggles

1984–1986: First seasons in Indianapolis