Robert Irsay
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Robert Irsay (born March 5, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois — died January 14, 1997 in Indianapolis, Indiana), was the longtime owner of the National Football League's Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts franchise.
While previously the owner of the-then Los Angeles Rams, Irsay essentially traded franchises with Carroll Rosenbloom, the-then owner of the Colts in 1972.
In a controversial move, Robert Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis, Indiana in the early morning hours of March 29, 1984. After Irsay's death, the Colts were inherited by his son, Jim Irsay, who currently serves as CEO. Team president Bill Polian handles day-to-day operations of the team.
[edit] "The Move"
With negotiations between Robert Irsay and Baltimore, Maryland over improvements to Memorial Stadium at an impasse, the Maryland state legislature passed a law on March 28, 1984 allowing the city of Baltimore to seize the Colts under eminent domain, which city and county officials had previously threatened to do. Irsay later claimed the city promised him a new football stadium, something they publicly denied, citing the team's poor recent performance and poor attendance. Negotiations broke down when an apparently inebriated, ranting Irsay appeared on a local TV news broadcast and threatened to leave Baltimore — a threat he had made previously. Soon afterward, the legislature passed a bill allowing the seizing of the team under eminent domain. The next day, Irsay, fearing a dawn raid on the team's Owings Mills headquarters, quickly accepted a deal offered by the city of Indianapolis and then contacted his good friend, John B. Smith, who was the CEO of the Mayflower Transit Company, and arranged for fifteen vans to hurriedly pack up the team's property and transport it to Indianapolis in the early hours of the morning.
However, Irsay's attorney, Michael Chernoff, defended what became colloquially known as "The Move": "They (the Maryland state legislature and the city of Baltimore) 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?' said Chernoff of his client's decision. "They forced him to make a decision that day." [1]
An ecstatic crowd in Indianapolis greeted the arrival of their new NFL team, and the team received 143,000 season ticket requests in just two weeks. However, the Colts' first game in the Hoosier Dome was a 21-14 loss to the New York Jets.
Baltimore was without an NFL football team until 1996, when Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, moved the team to Maryland. They were then renamed the Baltimore Ravens. As part of the unique deal, the Cleveland Browns franchise was deactivated and the Modell organization gave up ownership of statistics, records, and trademarks. Those would be given to the new Browns owners. The Ravens, in essence, were an expansion team with no history. Indianapolis, meanwhile, still lays claim to the records and history of the Baltimore Colts despite the extreme opposition of the men (including Johnny Unitas, Art Donovan, and Lenny Moore) who actually played for the Colts in Baltimore.
According to an article in the Baltimore Sun
Irsay's relationship with Baltimore was far more tempestuous after the Colt's move. He had a reputation as a shrewd businessman, an impetuous and meddlesome team owner prone to drunken fits of rage. He would openly voice his dissatisfaction with players, coaches and Memorial Stadium, the latter of which led him to consider moving the team elsewhere, though he denied it up to the end. "I have no intentions of moving the ... team," he said in January 1984, two months before Mayflower moving vans pulled into Baltimore in the dead of night and loaded up the team's belongings for Indianapolis, which was offering a new, domed stadium, subsidized loans, guaranteed revenue and more. Born in Chicago to Jewish-Hungarian parents who changed their names from Israel to Irsay when he was young, Irsay made a fortune in the heating and air conditioning business he learned from his father. He later became estranged from his parents and brother, who accused him of denying his Jewish roots, pretending his upbringing was impoverished and making off with family funds. He later would be accused of embellishing his past -- from his college education to his combat record. In a 1986 interview with Sports Illustrated, his own mother called him "a devil on earth."
