Colts Fanbase?

[tannurr]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but a random thought popped into my head the other day and I've been curious about it ever since. 

 

I've always just assumed that more or less, most football fans in the state of Indiana were Colts fans, but then I got to thinking about Gary, Indiana and how close they are to Chicago. Is there some kind of even split there or do they lean more one way to either the Bears or the Colts. 

 

Again, sorry if this is in the wrong area or if it's just a dumb question in general, but I've been curious about it since I live in Virginia and don't really have an in person view on any of this.

[PrincetonTiger]

1 minute ago, tannurr said:

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but a random thought popped into my head the other day and I've been curious about it ever since. 

 

I've always just assumed that more or less, most football fans in the state of Indiana were Colts fans, but then I got to thinking about Gary, Indiana and how close they are to Chicago. Is there some kind of even split there or do they lean more one way to either the Bears or the Colts. 

 

Again, sorry if this is in the wrong area or if it's just a dumb question in general, but I've been curious about it since I live in Virginia and don't really have an in person view on any of this.

The Region media coverages skews towards Chicago 

[2006Coltsbestever]

2 of my very close friends are Bears fans who I didn't meet until the mid 90's, they were fans before the Colts moved here is what they tell me. Then the 1985 Bears happened when the Colts were new here so there's that which made that team more popular. I work with a few Bears fans too. I have been a Colts fan since 1984 (the move), we sucked at the time but I was happy to have a team and rooted for them anyway, I was only 13 when that happened. 1987 is when we got put on the map with Dickerson coming here and winning the AFC East. 1995 with Harbaugh enhanced the franchise as we were a play away from the SB. Then once Peyton got here the rest was history. When we won the SB in 2006/07, I rubbed it in every Bears fan face (we beat them, sweet) and smoked a cigar and had about 5 or 6 adult beverages that night . Luck retiring still hurts but he brought us 4 very good seasons and some great moments, now we have to find the guy to get us back to the top. I was proud of Rivers this past season, he got us to 11-5 and the playoffs but he is gone now too. Usually I can come up with an answer who would be a good to great QB for us, I said Rivers would be good and I was right but right now I have no clue. Any move we make could work out or backfire?? 

[jchandler7]

I've lived in the tri-state area of Indiana my entire life and from my observation I would guess Indiana is broke up 4 ways: 60% Colts fans, 15% Bears fans (northwestern IN), 15% Bengals fans (Southeastern IN) & 10% mixed fans that grew up in other states. 

[PrincetonTiger]

Down here in the Pocket there are a lot of Titan Fans, Saints Fans because of Katrina and Dolphins Fans because of Bob Griese    
   I have a feeling because of Toyota and Duke Energy and other Companies the Tristate have fans of all 32 teams

[USAFHoosier]

I grew up in NW Indiana and there are more Bears than Colts fans up that way. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

After we won it all in 2006/07 as fan I became content after that and more patient over the years. Did I want the Colts to win more and become a dynasty, I did but I took losing much easier after the 06 season. The 2009 SB sucked and that bothered me a bit because I felt like we had the better team. After going through Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Jamal Lewis, and Steve McNair at Baltimore, beating Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in the AFC Title Game, then beating the Bears in the SB when they have a lot of fans here, how can you top that?

[jchandler7]

23 minutes ago, PrincetonTiger said:

Down here in the Pocket there are a lot of Titan Fans, Saints Fans because of Katrina and Dolphins Fans because of Bob Griese    
   I have a feeling because of Toyota and Duke Energy and other Companies the Tristate have fans of all 32 teams

I live in IN but I'm 20 mins from KY & 40 mins from OH. Due to all the power plants, steel mills & other manufacturers along the river there are fans from about every state/team. However, in my little area it is about 40% Colts fans, 30% Bengals fans, 10% Steelers, 10% Browns & 10% all other. With that said though I've also been on some benchmarking trips to US steel in Gary IN and there are ALOT of Bears fans up in that area. 

[HoosierHero]

I live in South Bend about five minutes away from Notre Dame campus and I’d say it’s about an even split between colts and Bears fans. My dad said after the Super Bowl he started to notice a lot more Colts fans in this area. So yeah. 

[PrincetonTiger]

1 minute ago, jchandler7 said:

I live in IN but I'm 20 mins from KY & 40 mins from OH. Due to all the power plants, steel mills & other manufacturers along the river there are fans from about every state/team. However, it is about 40% Colts fans, 30% Bengals fans, 10% Steelers, 10% Browns & 10% all other. With that said though I've also been on some benchmarking trips to US steel in Gary IN and there are ALOT of Bears fans up in that area. 

I live about 25 miles from the Kentucky and 10 from Illinois  
  the TV stations in EVV carry preseason and game day coverage for the Bears, Colts, and Titans

 

   

[2006Coltsbestever]

2 minutes ago, HoosierHero said:

I live in South Bend about five minutes away from Notre Dame campus and I’d say it’s about an even split between colts and Bears fans. My dad said after the Super Bowl he started to notice a lot more Colts fans in this area. So yeah. 

Winning does wonders . Peyton kept us relevant for so long than Luck did too for a few years, a lot forgot about the Bears.

[PrincetonTiger]

2 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Winning does wonders . Peyton kept us relevant for so long than Luck did too for a few years, a lot forgot about the Bears.

Location of the players matter too

there are a lot of 

  Bear fans because of Jay Cutler(Spencer County)

  Dolphins fans because of Bob Griese(Evansville)

  Viking Fans because of Scott Studwell(Evansville)

  Jag fans because of Kevin Hardy(Evansville) and K. Cole(KWC)

[ReMeDy]

15 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Winning does wonders . Peyton kept us relevant for so long than Luck did too for a few years, a lot forgot about the Bears.

 

Legends speak highly of Rex Grossman leading the Bears to the Superbowl, but Devin Hester didn't score enough touchdowns.

[PrincetonTiger]

Just now, ReMeDy said:

 

Legends speak highly of Rex Grossman leading the Bears to the Superbowl. It's a shame Devin Hester didn't score enough touchdowns.

Old Rex was an Indiana kid

[2006Coltsbestever]

12 minutes ago, PrincetonTiger said:

Old Rex was an Indiana kid

He threw 2 beautiful passes, one to Kelvin Hayden and another to Bob Sanders. It was pure poetry.

[DattMavis]

I lived in Evansville for the first 22 years of my life (been in Illinois for the past 5 sadly). Most down there are Colts fans, but you’ll see some Bears fans, and even a good amount of Steelers fans.

My dad grew up a Cowboys fan. Once I was old enough to enjoy football, I realized Indiana had a football team, and I became a diehard Colts fan. I eventually made my dad a Colts fan too.

[GoColts8818]

The area around Chicago is bears country.  People over a certain age who remember life before the Colts tend to be Bears fans or fans of another “national” team.  I don’t think the Bengals pull much from Indiana fans and the Titans moved after the Colts established them selves in Indy.  So I’d say vast majority of Indiana and fans under the age of 45 are Colts fans.  

[Arodgers12]

You know a cool thing about Indiana is Northern Indiana gets long severe winters and Southern Indiana winters are fairly mild, cold but much milder with 15-20 inches of snow on average per winter. Northern Indiana gets 4 months of winter while Southern Indiana gets 2 and a half months of winter. Am I right? 

[Arodgers12]

There are probably lots of Packers fans in Indiana as well. I know we rule Illinois, Iowa and even parts of Nebraska. 

[chickenMan]

There are, unfortunately, many Bears fans in Indiana, all over the state. Sadly, not everyone who lives in this state is a Colts fan, which in my opinion is a darn shame

[chickenMan]

1 hour ago, Arodgers12 said:

You know a cool thing about Indiana is Northern Indiana gets long severe winters and Southern Indiana winters are fairly mild, cold but much milder with 15-20 inches of snow on average per winter. Northern Indiana gets 4 months of winter while Southern Indiana gets 2 and a half months of winter. Am I right? 

For the most part. The difference between northern Indiana and southern Indiana is night and day. North is wide, open, much colder, much flatter. South is hilly, lots of forests, much warmer, not as flat. That is, of course, a generalization, but you get the point.

 

Interestingly enough, the “flatness” of northern Indiana compared to southern Indiana has been theorized to have been caused by a massive glacier sliding across the north half of the state in the Ice Age, flattening the land. The more you know.

 

(Btw the southern part is the good part of the state)

[chickenMan]

1 hour ago, GoColts8818 said:

The area around Chicago is bears country.  People over a certain age who remember life before the Colts tend to be Bears fans or fans of another “national” team.  I don’t think the Bengals pull much from Indiana fans and the Titans moved after the Colts established them selves in Indy.  So I’d say vast majority of Indiana and fans under the age of 45 are Colts fans.  

Bengals fans are quite plentiful around the Louisville area and the Ohio border, actually

[jvan1973]

The colts are relativity new to the Midwest.   When I was a kid in Hendricks County there was a lot of bears fans.  Also a lot of steelers fans.   The colts fan base really started growing during the manning years.   

[PeacefulEasonFeeling]

8 hours ago, tannurr said:

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but a random thought popped into my head the other day and I've been curious about it ever since. 

 

I've always just assumed that more or less, most football fans in the state of Indiana were Colts fans, but then I got to thinking about Gary, Indiana and how close they are to Chicago. Is there some kind of even split there or do they lean more one way to either the Bears or the Colts. 

 

Again, sorry if this is in the wrong area or if it's just a dumb question in general, but I've been curious about it since I live in Virginia and don't really have an in person view on any of this.

I was born in Gary. There are Chicago sycophants there... I was blessed to move to Maryland in ‘68. And to have the Irsays later. Robert was born in Chi-Town I think.

[Fluke_33]

9 hours ago, jchandler7 said:

I've lived in the tri-state area

I grew up in ny and always thought the term Tri state only meant ny nj and ct.  I never even considered other states would use the term for their borders.  Lol. Makes sense that many would though. 

[ColtsSouljah]

Sadly, there are far, far more Bears fans in NW Indiana than Colts fans. I get excited any time I see someone in Colts gear.  It's dumb; NW Indiana is still Indiana. We often don't even get the Colts games televised.

[DattMavis]

7 hours ago, Arodgers12 said:

There are probably lots of Packers fans in Indiana as well. I know we rule Illinois, Iowa and even parts of Nebraska. 

Yeah, I knew some Packers fans growing up in Southern Indiana. Half of them were transplants from South Dakota, and the other half were native Hoosiers.

[DattMavis]

28 minutes ago, Fluke_33 said:

I grew up in ny and always thought the term Tri state only meant ny nj and ct.  I never even considered other states would use the term for their borders.  Lol. Makes sense that many would though. 

Yeah, I thought the same thing growing up in SW Indiana. My wife thought the same growing up in western Illinois. Apparently there are 20 of them in the US.

[Fluke_33]

6 minutes ago, DattMavis said:

Yeah, I thought the same thing growing up in SW Indiana. My wife thought the same growing up in western Illinois. Apparently there are 20 of them in the US.

That’s so funny to me.  All of us being so self centered by area. Weird but not uncommon I guess. 

[jvan1973]

18 minutes ago, ColtsSouljah said:

Sadly, there are far, far more Bears fans in NW Indiana than Colts fans. I get excited any time I see someone in Colts gear.  It's dumb; NW Indiana is still Indiana. We often don't even get the Colts games televised.

I'm further east from you in Elkhart

   If the bears and colts play at the same time and on the same channel,   we don't get Colts games either

[ColtStrong2013]

10 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

When we won the SB in 2006/07, I rubbed it in every Bears fan face (we beat them, sweet) and smoked a cigar and had about 5 or 6 adult beverages that night 

If your definition of an adult beverage is the same as mine, you didn’t go to work that Monday... 

[The Fish]

Northern Indiana post Peyton has a strong Colts footprint and now that CBS/FOX have intermingled their AFC/NFC rights, if the Bears and Colts are both on at 1 on Fox for example, we're getting the Colts.

You'll find Bears, Packers, Lions, Bengals, Browns and Bills fans and the national winners at the time have noticeable flag wavers around here.

[ColtsSouljah]

1 hour ago, jvan1973 said:

I'm further east from you in Elkhart

   If the bears and colts play at the same time and on the same channel,   we don't get Colts games either

 

Booooo. I think it's beyond stupid that I live in Indiana and yet have to pay for Sunday Ticket to see the Colts

[RollerColt]

Southeast Indiana has a large following of Bengals fans. It’s nothing to see areas covered in orange and black during football season. Got quite a bit of family up north who support the Bears. But they’re from a different age (pre-‘84). 

[ponyboy]

The Bears where the regional team on TV for much of north and central Indiana before the Colts moved to Indy in 1984.  Many of us who grew up watching football in the 60s and 70s in north and central Indiana watched the Bears every week.  My family were all diehard Bears fans.  I was too and still am a Bears fan, but I started following the Colts in 84 and attended games at the RCA dome in the late 80s and early 90s.

 

I moved away from Indiana in the mid 80s just after the Colts arrived.  Somewhere around 1990 the Colts surpassed the Bears as my primary team, but I still follow both closely.  My brother never stopped being a diehard Bears fan.

 

So, many of the over 40 year old diehard football fans that have lived in central or northern Indiana their whole live may have developed an allegiance for the Bears as the regional team shown on TV every week.  The same might be true for the Bengals in SE Indiana.

[NFLfan]

13 hours ago, tannurr said:

I've always just assumed that more or less, most football fans in the state of Indiana were Colts fans, but then I got to thinking about Gary, Indiana and how close they are to Chicago. Is there some kind of even split there or do they lean more one way to either the Bears or the Colts. 

 

I have enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you. You have to post more often. 

 

It does seem like there are many Bears fans in Indiana, in addition to Colts fans, of course. But I have also heard that there are many Chiefs fans, Bengals fans, and even some Vikings fans.

 

When I first signed on here 7 years ago (almost to this day), there were a few forum members who sent me PMs telling me that before the Colts arrived to Indy, they were Vikings fans. One of them is still active here. Another person told me that his dad grew up a Vikings fans.

[PrincetonTiger]

Just now, NFLfan said:

 

I have enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you. You have to post more often. 

 

It does seem like there are many Bears fans in Indiana, in addition to Colts fans, of course. But I have also heard that there are many Chiefs fans, Bengals fans, and even some Vikings fans.

 

When I first signed on here 7 years ago (almost to this day), there were a few forum members who sent me PMs telling me that before the Colts arrived to Indy, they were Vikings fans. One of them is still active here. Another person told me that his dad grew up a Vikings fans.

It always helps that one of the Viking Greats was a Pocketeer

[NFLfan]

Just now, PrincetonTiger said:

It always helps that one of the Viking Greats was a Pocketeer

 

Who is that? 

[PrincetonTiger]

Just now, NFLfan said:

 

Who is that? 

Scott Studwell

[NFLfan]

 

8 minutes ago, PrincetonTiger said:

Scott Studwell

 

Ah!  I did not know that. Thanks. Studwell played a few years before I became a fan, but I know who he is. He had the same number as a guy that I was a big fan of, Jack Del Rio. 

 

Haven't you said that you also root for the Chiefs. I assumed many people from your area in Indiana were also Chiefs fans.