Why the Colts?

I’ve lived in the Indianapolis area my entire life. I moved downtown recently, partially just so I could be closer to the stadium.

My dad took me to a few games back in the early 90s, when he had season tickets. Back then he couldn’t get anyone to go the games with him. As a 6 year old, I got Jack Trudeau’s autograph one game on a hat, and have been a follower ever since.

I’m an Indianapolis native (Evansville born) Hoosier that spends time in New York City and Indy throughout the year. I began rooting for the Colts in 1990, when my mother would watch the Monday Evening QB segment on the local news which featured then-Colts QB Jeff George. George had long hair, a beard, and often looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. Mom had a crush on him(God knows why). Because of this crush, we started watching football on Sunday. My father did not support the violence that football seemed to promote, but my brother and I watched football with Mom not because of Jeff George, but because the Colts were Indy’s football team. We suffered through the lean years; years that featured Jack Trudeau throwing 3 yard passes to Reggie Langhorne.

Years of terrible defense and offense so inept and dull it would put us to sleep by the second quarter. We suffered through these years, but they helped us appreciate great play when it finally arrived in 1995 with QB Jim “Captain Comeback” Harbaugh and then later on with the drafting of Peyton Manning.

I didn’t watch much NFL as a kid, mostly just Iowa games since I was in NFL no-mans land. Right as I was starting to get interested in the NFL the Colts drafted two of my favorite Hawkeyes, Bob Sanders and Dallas Clark.

At about the same time my complete lack of size and athleticism ended my football career, so I turned to my new NFL team to help get my fix.

My family got season tickets the year that the Colts moved here (and have had them since). I still remember my first game, even though I was only like 6 at the time. I was walking up the steps of the Hoosier Dome, and kind of tripped on the last step. As I picked myself up, I looked up into the stadium – I remember being totally blown away by the size of the thing. (That’s what she said.) I was hooked immediately.

All through elementary school, I stayed loyal while my friends rooted for teams like the 49ers and teased me about being a Colts fan. We went to all the home games, so I didn’t really grow up watching the NFL as much as I grew up watching The Horse. All I can say is, when you are that loyal for that long – these recent years of success have been just that much sweeter.

as a huge Wolverines fan. I remember watching Peyton Manning play for the Volunteers, and I became a big fan. When Charles Woodson received the Heisman, I was the only Michigan fan who was not happy about it. I thought Peyton deserved it.

Having graduated from college, my career brought me to northwest Indiana in the fall of ‘98. (Even though it is Indiana, Chicago dominates the media here because of proximity. Most people are lifelong Bears fans, though the Colts are making a local surge due to their success.) I came to Indiana at the same time my favorite college QB was starting his rookie season for the Colts. I immediately made my sports loyalties to be all things Indiana, making me in the minority in this part of the state.

My wife, children and I are diehard Colts fans, outspoken ambassadors for our team in this lost part of our state. My nine year old son just became the QB for his football team, and the lobbying for jersey #18 has begun. Go Colts!

i moved to the states from mery old england. couldnt get my soccer fix :( had to watch some kind of sport. starting tuning in on sundays and one player caught my eye. Peyton Manning. cool, calm, collected, efficient and praise worthy. i had no idea of how the points worked for a little while or how the game was played but ive now come to appreciate how Peyton plays the game. now a huge colts fan i have converted my girlfriend who has NFL SHOP as her home page :P
We’re going to our first game this coming season on Monday Night in Tennessee. I live in south carolina so its the closest im gonna get this season.

go colts! :D

That sums it up. Although I was a Raiders fan because of Tim Brown for a little while.

We moved to Indy in ‘91 and the Colts were the home team so that was the team I followed closely. I hadn’t built up a loyalty to any particular team before then, just a big football fan. Even through the horrendous years, I still cheered. Harbaugh came on the scene and “let ‘er rip” (I absolutely despised the Steelers after that AFC Championship game). And now we have one the greatest QBs in the history of the game. As the years go by, the loyalties increase. Even if the Colts go 1-15, I’ll still be cheering. Even if I am forced to move for one reason or another, I’ll still be cheering. GO BLUE!!

I had just gotten into football back then since my friend is a huge Buc’s fan and I watched the Buccaneer/Raider superbowl. Since then I used the Buc’s as a default team trying to look for a team that I can claim as my own. Thats when I saw one of the greatest games of all time. That faithful Monday Night in Raymond James when the Colts came to play. That comeback inspired me so much, that I knew this was the team for me.

I was born in March of 84. The Colts have not been in Indianapolis for less than four weeks of my entire life. My dad and I would go to games and watch them on the TV when I was a kid. I grew up a Colts fan, probably part of the first generation that did.

Since most of the regs added their stories, and I since I have been hanging around this blog for awhile now:

My uncle has worked on the sidelines since almost the beginning of the Colts stay in Indy. My dad would go down there with him most times as well. We used to go to games all the time because we could get free tickets.The Colts would invariably lose. We’d get picked up in the back afterwards, by Robert Irsay’s touring bus….At the time, in my entire school, Fall Creek Elementary up in Fishville, I think my friend RM and I were the only Colts fans. If you wore Colts gear to school, you were lame. HA! My fav game up to the 95 run in Pitts (and all subsequent good games) was the 1987? (I think ) wildcard game against the Browns. (I’ve always secretly liked watching the Browns because that was such a cool game.) Bernie Kosar and all. Go Colts!

for all the stories, these are great. I didn’t expect this many replies, keep them coming…

I was an impressionable kid who grew up just outside of South Bend, which was a huge Bears town. I remember watching the Colts beat the Chargers, and then the “Marty-Ball” Chiefs, before just missing out against the Steelers.

I can remember watching the Colts lose to the Titans in the playoffs in ‘99, but don’t remember much before I was out of high school. I guess I had too many other things going on. Once I got to ND, meeting people from all over who were big into their own teams started me down the path of being the obsessive fan I am today with the Colts.

I grew up near Kokomo and was 7 when the Colts moved to Indy. I remember before then and even a little after being a fan of the Broncos just because that’s who my mom liked because she loved John Elway.

But I still liked the Colts. I remember going to a game with my family in 1990 against the Washington Redskins (the Colts, naturally, got their asses kicked) But then Captain Comeback came along. I guess the moment I became an official, for life, Colts fan was that playoff run to the AFC Championship Game that Colts team made in 95.

No looking back from there.

For me, it was in January of 1996 when the Colts lost to the Steelers in the AFC championship game. So I guess back then, I was 9 years old when I watched the game at my grandma’s house. Obvioulsy the most memorbable play was the hail marry that was almost a touchdown. That play got me intitiated to be a Colts fan, and then my father took me to a few games the following seasons and now I am here…A Colts Blogger!

I was in middle school during the ‘95 playoff run, and caught a really bad flu the week of the Chiefs game. I knew less about football than then Somalians, but when I sat there and watch that, my first full football game, I felt a great amount of pride in my team beating the odds to overcome Kansas City. The next week, feeling much better, I had to watch the AFC Championship Game(though the only thing about the game I knew was that if we won we went to the Super Bowl). It was my first full game of being a fan of any football team, it was like me watching Reggie Miller against the Knicks. I was impressed with the tenacity of Captain Comeback, and I screamed at the top of my lungs when the Aaron Bailey hail mary catch was ruled no good. And so birthed a love of football that existed in the back of my mind.

I tried to keep up the love, but the Colts were heart-wrenching to watch. It was especially hard when your best friend is a big time 49ers fan, and you have a passing interest in the Panthers because of family ties and the fact that you liked their colors and mascot(stupid kid). The Pacers were still my heart though. And then I remember the whole Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf deal, from my 49ers friend(he watched SportsCenter at least three times a day, we didn’t have cable most of my childhood). I kept an eye on the Colts during college, but with the Pacer’s going to the Finals in 2000 and the excitement I felt for that team being so palpable, it was hard to commit to the Colts.

It took me going to the military, and having my sports teams being my only link to my hometown, coupled with the fall of the Pacers from grace, that made crazy about the Colts. Manning’s record-breaking 2004 season sealed the deal, and I have been committed ever since. My friend did too, abandoning the Niners right at the time I was spending a few weekends a year presenting Colors at Candlestick/Monster for the Air Force. (We got tickets to see the game afterward, but we only stayed a quarter, and that was usually just to grab a few beers before heading back to base).

I think Harbaugh helped ignite the interest in many young fans of the sport in Indy, and Manning cemented the team’s place in their hearts. Here’s to the two of them, and other players like Marvin, Reggie, Edge, and Freeney for making a team not named the Pacers that everyone in Indy, and hopefully the state of Indiana can stand behind.

That was the year that I moved to Indiana. Before that I was a Saints fan since I lived down there. Boy was it hard rooting for the Saints. But it’s been great seeing them be successful with my college mate Drew Brees behind the helm.

And so when I moved to Indiana in January 1996 I was watching the Colts/Steelers game just to see how the Colts were as a team. I was instantly a fan.

And now I can’t wait for the Colts to play Baltimore in Baltimore so that I can see them. Maybe I can get in for free being in the Air Force as well Bullard.

In retrospect, I was incredibly lucky. I moved to Indy from Boston of all places in the summer of 1995. I was somewhat interested in football at the time and I remember being slightly interested in the Bledsoe-led Patriots. Fortunately, I didn’t become real interested in it til I got out here. I was this close to being a Pats fan!! Anyways, as a majority of people are saying, that magical 1995 season brought me in. I went from being a pats/celtics fan as a young child to a pacers/colts fan with the colts magical run and reggies 8 points in 8 seconds game. as for the colts, not only is that missed hail marry still heart wrenching (ESPN2 shows that game every year sometime in October) but what’s worse was the Kordell Stewart TD earlier in the game where he stepped out of bounds right in front of the ref. I’m sure most of you remember that play.

Anyways, I think it’s pretty interesting how many people became Colts fans with that 95 playoff run. Most people outside of Indy probably don’t remember who Harbaugh is but for Colts fans, he is still a god among men. Few franchises have such a single memorable, non-championship moment to bring in generations of fans.

My dad was a Colts fan from back in their Baltimore days, but for whatever reason, he chose to retain his team allegiance despite the move, so when it came time for me pick a team and to really root for, I decided to go with the house. It was a good thing I came to this decision right before the magical ‘95 season with Captain Comeback. I’ve been a fan ever since.

It’s kind of funny, most people probably assume that we became fans during the Manning era, but it was really Jim Harbaugh that made us all fans. Go figure.

My family moved to Fort Wayne when I was really young. Everyone else in my family was a Bears fan and I was too young to do anything but follow my parents’ lead. When I was 9, I entered PAL football and was put on the Colts. That was all it took for me to start seeing them as my team. I am very greatful I didn’t end up on the Lions. And I agree with everyone else. None of my friends understand the Harbaugh love.

Its a skewed reason. The wife’s family is from the New England area and being the stiff upper lip Bostonians they are, I had to find a way to spite them. So the enemy of an enemy is one’s greatest friend :)

But I’ve come to admire the football minds of Coach Dungy and his staff and Peyton Manning. And the more I see of Polian’s work, the more I’m amazed at the man’s nose for talent. If only corporate America’s recruiters had a penchant for bringing in the best like he does.

in the 95 AFC championship game against pittsburgh. Im from central pennsylvania, so everyone and their mother worship the steelers. Here is this nobody colts team, taking on the stillers with a qb named harbaugh (never mind hes from UM), and my favorite RB Marshall Faulk. that day pretty much cemented my loyalty to the colts… its continued ever since

Well, I’ve never even been to Indiana (in fact I was born and raised in So Cal and was NEVER a Lambs or Faiders fan). However, my family is from New Orleans and I remember watching Archie with my dad when I was a kid. HUGE, HUGE Archie Fan. So, basically, I have been watching Peyton since Tennessee…obviously this would lead to my routing for the Colts. The cool thing is that I have really, seriously fallen for this team! Harrison, Wayne, Clark, Saturday (still miss Tarik), Sanders, Brackett, Hagler, Jackson (still miss Booger)...Coaches Dungy and Mudd. Not a classier group in the NFL. And, I must say, the fans are the BEST!!!!

I went to some colts games after they moved to Indy…I enjoyed the Dome and Nacho Country…but really I liked the cheerleaders. They were terrible back then and I think that made me like them more, you know, they seemed easy and for an eight year old kid, that is exactly what I was looking for. Next thing I remember Cap’n Comeback was at the helm and we got bung rapped by the Steelers and lost the AFC Championship. Since then I have always loved the game and everything about the colts. It has been an easy ride because they have somehow improved just about every year since then. Polian, Manning, Dungy, Edge…now Wayne and Addai. What a turn around Mr. Polian has accomplished for this team and what he in turn has done for this city is truly remarkable.

So true confessions… I grew up a Raiders fan… followed them since I was 10 years old and worshipped the likes of Jim Plunkett, Tim Brown and Lyle Alzado. Frankly, I still like the Raiders and will support them against any team other than the Colts. But some time in the late 90s, I grew weary of the Raider image… it’s one thing to be a “bad boy” when it’s all in good fun and playful, but the team degenerated into the depths of badness – violent crimes, poor attitudes, and nasty fans.

So I set out on a quest to find a new team to support with only the following criteria: (1) good wholesome image; and (2) the most ex-Cal players on the team. I think criterion #1 narrowed the field down to teams like the Packers, the Vikings, and maybe the Oilers (I wasn’t very discriminating, and assumed I would have to avoid coastal teams). When I looked across all the wholesome teams, the Colts had the most ex-Cal players: Sean Dawkins, Tarik Glenn, and 1 or 2 others I can’t remember. So there I was.

I can also sympathize with rangerover76… my husband is a dyed-in-the-wool New England sports fan – Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox. And although I really didn’t have much against the Patriots until the refs gave them the 2001 AFC Divisional Championship with that stupid Tuck Rule, I have grown to really despise them with the arrogance, cheating and all. So Colts-Patriots matchup weekends don’t tend to be pretty in my household!