Colts fans outside Indy

[NCost12]

New Jersey! 

[OldManP]

New Jersey!

What exit?

[IAColtsFan]

As a kid I had always played the WR position.  My coach sat me down and wanted to move me to RB as I wasn't getting any taller.  I told him that I liked catching passes so he showed me a video of Marshall Faulk doing it from the RB position.  From that point I became a Colts fan (still followed Faulk as a Ram yet became a fan of the whole team, not just the one player).

[buccolts]

It wasn't a problem, just their hometown they were loyal to.

 

Oh, I know, just joshin'.

I recall Unitas was actually pretty spiteful over the move to Indy, also.

Was an emotional issue for all involved.

[BOTT]

Do you think the team reflects the fanbase?

The Colts name should have changed when they left Baltimore. Colts because of horse racing makes sense. But Ravens might be a better fit for Baltimore and it happened long ago. Most team names are not as strongly linked to a city as were the Colts. The Packers, Cowboys, Dolphins wouldn't make sense anywhere else. When the Senators moved out of DC, they changed. Irsay should have changed the team name to something that meant Indy.

Could be worse. At least there is a significant horse industry in Indiana....unlike lakes in LA or jazz in Utah

[The Old Crow]

Do you think the team reflects the fanbase?

The Colts name should have changed when they left Baltimore. Colts because of horse racing makes sense. But Ravens might be a better fit for Baltimore and it happened long ago. Most team names are not as strongly linked to a city as were the Colts. The Packers, Cowboys, Dolphins wouldn't make sense anywhere else. When the Senators moved out of DC, they changed. Irsay should have changed the team name to something that meant Indy.

It's all water under the bridge now, but I think anytime a team has to move, they should change the name. It just makes the split cleaner. When the Browns came, no one here wanted the Browns name. What did Paul Brown have to do with Baltimore ? When the St. Louis Browns came to Baltimore in 54, I just wish they would have retired those records in St Louis. What am I going to brag as an Orioles fan that we won the 44 Pennant? That happened in St Louis and isn't part of Baltimore history. Am I going to pretend I was a St Louis Browns fan in the 40's ?

I think the other thing is owners who buy teams that try to take credit for what previous owners did in the past , as if it was their legacy. They may own the team and records , but the legacy belongs to the ownership family that won the Championships. Their legacy is what had happened when they owned the team. However, the reason these owners take names and logos when they leave a city, is to perpetuate a myth that they actually won the Championships, not the previous ownership group. If they truly wanted their own ownership legacy, they would indeed change the team name to match the new city when they move.

[COLTS449]

Grew up in NE Pennsylvania and was a Johnny U fan ever since I was a kid. When my father took me on a bus trip to see the Colts play in run down Memorial Stadium in a snowstorm I was hooked. It didn't matter that the Colts moved to Indy or that I moved to Texas and now Alabama. But thank God for Direct TV and NFL Sunday Ticket!

 

Yeah Sunday Ticket is awesome.

[The Old Crow]

Oh, I know, just joshin'.

I recall Unitas was actually pretty spiteful over the move to Indy, also.

Was an emotional issue for all involved.

It's all good. I think Unitas was mad about the move, but he was more steamed about how Irsay and GM Joe Thomas treated him at the end. It was a combination of things. I don't think he ever disliked Indy, or it's fans. They just became Baltimore people, who

owned businesses , raised families, and had many friends in

the area. What people forget is how helpful and great those old Baltimore Colts guys were in helping Baltimore get the Ravens. Like all of us, they wanted an NFL team in Baltimore again. We all wanted expansion, but Taglibue and Redskins buddy Jack Kent Cooke put the screws to us. Unfortunately , the last avenue to us was having a deal on the table to tempt Modell. It wasn't the cleanest way to get a team, but at least the name, logos, and records were left in Cleveland. These things are just unfortunate all around.

[HarryTheCat]

I became a Colts fan when I moved to Indy back in the 80s, and renounced my 49ers "fanship".  They're still "my team" even though I'm in Titans country (they suck anyway). Thanks to the Sunday Ticket on DirecTV I can see every game, home and away, and can always find a disillusioned Titans fan willing to part with a couple of tickets when the Colts come to Nashville. There are a lot of Colts fans in Tennessee, most of them carryover Peyton fans from his Vols days...and besides, did I mention that the Titans suck?

[IndyFan14]

i became a Colts fan in 2009. I live in TN so im local to them. I was watching Peyton in the Super Bowl and was a football fanatic since

 

[The Old Crow]

Could be worse. At least there is a significant horse industry in Indiana....unlike lakes in LA or jazz in Utah

I know you guys have Hoosier Park out there, but I thought it was pretty minor league horse racing. The Utah Jazz may be the most ridiculous of all. Thank heavens we didn't get the Minnesota or Texas Senators in baseball either.

[unvrsty07]

I lived in Indianapolis as a child but never watched any sports. It was not until I moved to Chattanooga, TN that I missed Indianapolis and needed a way to connect with the city. I found football to be that outlet. Stayed up until about 1 am EST watching the Colts Vs. Bucs game comeback and was screaming and celebrating outside on a quiet suburban neighborhood in Tennessee. Been a die hard fan ever since. Still sport my colts gear on Bourbon Street every time I am in NOLA ever since moving to Louisiana two years ago.

[ChrisMoy96]

Tijuana, Mexico

[Coltfan3589]

I was born in Baltimore the same year as the Colts and when I was 15 we moved to Indiana so I've always been a Colt fan.

[Warhorse]

I just crawled out from under a bridge, and there was a discarded Colts flag wrapped around a 32 oz Colt 45.

 

 

The rest (the beer) is history.

[NCost12]

What exit?

Im in Bergen County 

[ColtsBlueFL]

As a youngster, was a fan of Purple people eaters NOT the Bears!!).  But as they diminished, I was taken by the like of Bubba Smith, John Mackey, Mike Curtis, Bert Jones  (of Course, always J. Unitas, even before I like Colts).  I was a changed fan, forever.  

[Get Lucky]

My high school football coach was a big colts fun. Always wanted our offence to be up tempo like Indys! Always told us to watch games on Sunday, and I fell in love, coincidently, I played for the St. Clair Colts

[braveheartcolt]

Have spent half my life in Scotland, and half in England, so obviously, the Colts were the only team that made sense.

[Robert Johnson]

i  lived near Baltimore as a child,became a fan then,

[alawai]

I jumped on the bandwagon after "The Game".  Yes and I stayed blue all those years!

[buccolts]

It's all water under the bridge now, but I think anytime a team has to move, they should change the name. It just makes the split cleaner. When the Browns came, no one here wanted the Browns name. What did Paul Brown have to do with Baltimore ? When the St. Louis Browns came to Baltimore in 54, I just wish they would have retired those records in St Louis. What am I going to brag as an Orioles fan that we won the 44 Pennant? That happened in St Louis and isn't part of Baltimore history. Am I going to pretend I was a St Louis Browns fan in the 40's ?

I think the other thing is owners who buy teams that try to take credit for what previous owners did in the past , as if it was their legacy. They may own the team and records , but the legacy belongs to the ownership family that won the Championships. Their legacy is what had happened when they owned the team. However, the reason these owners take names and logos when they leave a city, is to perpetuate a myth that they actually won the Championships, not the previous ownership group. If they truly wanted their own ownership legacy, they would indeed change the team name to match the new city when they move.

 

I understand your thoughts, and I suppose there are many views of the situation, but wonder.....

Let's say the Colts changed their name to the Hoosiers when they moved.

When the Browns moved to Baltimore, what's their name? 

Shouldn't be the Browns, but in my view, it shouldn't be the Colts either. So still the Ravens?

Should the name belong to the franchise, or the city?

When the Raiders moved to L.A., should they have changed to the Rams, then back to the Raiders later?

 

I'm in Chicago. Let's say the Colts did change their name, and the Browns became the Colts when they moved to Baltimore.

I would have been pretty ticked. My team is in Indy, but all their identity changed teams and stayed in the old city?

 

The owner owns the team (obviously).

 

I'm not saying what's ultimately right, or wrong, as what's right, or wrong is different for everyone.

Just offering an alternate view.

[buccolts]

I jumped on the bandwagon after "The Game".  Yes and I stayed blue all those years!

 

Which 'The Game'?

'59, or '06?     just pulling your leg.

[ColtsBTM12]

I was born, raised, and currently live in Texas, but at the age of eight I was drawn to the Colts because of Peyton Manning. He was my childhood hero. From that point on I became a diehard fan of the COLTS and have followed them hardcore ever since for the past nine years. When he went to Denver I was already waay too big of a Colts fan to even think about switching teams. I will still root for Peyton, but its a new era of Colts football.

[New Zealands #1 Colts Fan]

My dad won 3 trips for highest percentage increase of sales for Valvoline Oil through his work to go to the Indy 500 in 1991/1993 and 1995. He always bought me home heaps of colts clothing and bits and pieces.

New Zealand also got pay tv in 1995 with ESPN being one of the channels. So i started watching the NFL then and naturally following the colts. Fell in love with the sport instantly and now its an obsession.

Luckily i met several other fanatics at a new job and we have been watching and playing fantasy for over ten years now.

[Maniq]

I'm from Denmark, and in the past fifteen years, NFL has grown more and more in Denmark.

 

I started watching b/c of some school mates some ten years ago, who watched a lot of NFL, and they guided me through the game the first three or four weeks... after that, I was hooked.

 

I don't know why I became a Colt fan - it happened automatically. The other guys hated me for it, which made me an even bigger fan. They had the greatest offense in the league, and that caught my attention... when Peyton then leads your offense, it was hard not to love watching them play.

 

I know there are a couple of other fans from Denmark on this forum. Hopefully the Colts will play in England in near future... Or I could just take the trip all the way to USA  ;)

[Hammer]

I live in South Dakota. I was 5 years old in 1958. My older brother was a crazed Colts fan and I remember watching him, watch the '58 Championship game. I jumped on the "bandwagon" then and there. By the way, my brother and our sons still get together for every game and have since the advent of the NFL Ticket.

[SLILLINGTON10]

My first Pop Warner football team was the Camas Colts.... my first introduction to the game of football was Colts football. Loved the game, loved being a Colt, and never wanted to watch another NFL team.

[braveheartcolt]

Right, now that we've had nearly two pages of kind responses, perhaps the OP will tell us his 'story'.....come on Donald E, what's yours?

[DoubleE Colt]

Well my story is a strange one I guess. I'm from England and used to watch the NFL on a highlights programme in the late 80's and early 90's as a kid. As you do when you're a kid you look for a reason to follow a team and at the time I had a passion for horse racing so I leant towards that theme. By coincidence around the same time I loved an American tv show called eerie Indiana. So the Colts seemed a perfect match. Must admit to losing track for a number of years as it was the days before the Internet or cable tv etc it made it so hard to keep in touch with anything across the Atlantic. But once I got back into the NFL as an adult I picked up where I left off with the colts.

[braveheartcolt]

Well my story is a strange one I guess. I'm from England and used to watch the NFL on a highlights programme in the late 80's and early 90's as a kid. As you do when you're a kid you look for a reason to follow a team and at the time I had a passion for horse racing so I leant towards that theme. By coincidence around the same time I loved an American tv show called eerie Indiana. So the Colts seemed a perfect match. Must admit to losing track for a number of years as it was the days before the Internet or cable tv etc it made it so hard to keep in touch with anything across the Atlantic. But once I got back into the NFL as an adult I picked up where I left off with the colts.

Thanks Don. Another Brit. We must be in double figures now. And perhaps fifty from Europe! Where you from / live?

[DoubleE Colt]

I'm a Hampshire lad. From Southampton. Born and raised there :-)

[Mattpara]

I'm from Australia, my brother and dad are Raiders fans. The first things i ever new about NFL (around 2004) was that the raiders were terrible and Peyton was a God. Also Blue and white were the colours of the team i played for in Aussie rules football. Ten years on and i couldn't be happier with my choice 

[IrishColt22]

Limerick. First game i watched was the 2007 pats game where we came from behind. Just kept watching

[methodicaleddie]

From southern California and what made me a Colts fan was the AFC championship game in 95 against the Steelers.  I was 6 at the time and that was the first football game that I saw and really started understanding what football was about.  From then on my older brother and I have been die hard Colts fans.  There's only a couple of others I know who are Colts fans here in LA.  No Colts bars out here either unfortunately.  

[UKColtfanHS]

I made friends with a guy who came over to England for a year as his Dad was on a sabbatical and they were from Indianapolis, he was the one who got me into American Football and introduced me to the Colts, been a fan ever since!

[bertjones#1]

Colts fan that grew up in CT. Liked their uniforms when i was a kid .Started in the Bert Jones era.

Bert Jones and Lydell Mitchell my favorite Colt players of all time. That`s why i like Andrew Luck so much

he has the same athletic ability as Bert Jones.

[open window]

I just crawled out from under a bridge, and there was a discarded Colts flag wrapped around a 32 oz Colt 45.

 

 

The rest (the beer) is history.

Works every time!

 

Evansville native here, the 85 bears opened my eyes to the NFL. I was initially a bears fan but I found myself becoming more interested in the Horseshoe about 1989 and became a full fledged homer by 1991, I have not missed a game since. I took the Colts love with me to Scottsdale in 2007, just can't get enough.

[ColtsHappy]

I was born in Fort Wayne and spent my first 19 years there. Have lived in New York since 1980. Became infatuated with Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts in 1958 when I was six years old. ALWAYS loved and followed the Colts and when they moved to Indy, I couldn't believe it!

 

I was blown away!

 

Love 'em the same whether they are 2-14 or 14-2.

 

ColtsHappy

[jayt327]

Maryland! Honestly became a fan of the Colts because of Andrew Luck. Previously a Dolphins fan for over 20 years, but after the Marino era it had been dark years for the past decade. Followed Luck in his rookie season and he brought back childhood memories of game winning drives and come backs made by Marino and Elway. Haven't looked back since.