Get ready for this weekend’s AFC Championship game with some facts on one of the contenders. Here is some Indianapolis Colts trivia.
The most notorious moment in franchise history occurred off the field. The team packed up and left Baltimore in the middle of the night, headed for its new home in Indianapolis. While Baltimore fans were furious, Indiana football fans were overjoyed—143,000 tickets sold within two weeks.
- The Colts have won a Super Bowl while based in Baltimore (1971) and Indianapolis (2007). The Raiders have similarly won the big game while based in Oakland and Los Angeles, but the Colts are the only team to win both of their Super Bowls in the same host city (Miami).
- Late in the 1958 NFL Championship game, legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas was leading the Colts on what would turn out to be a game-winning drive. His momentum was briefly interrupted when a drunk fan wandered onto the field. Referees had to pause the game to get the man off the field. However, he wasn’t really a drunk fan—he was Stan Rotkiewicz, an NBC employee who created a diversion so TV technicians could fix a broken cable.
- Four players are in the Hall of Fame as Colts: Unitas, Art Donovan, Lenny Moore, and Eric Dickerson. Only Dickerson is in as an Indianapolis Colt.
- Second-year tight end Justice Cunningham was the “Mr. Irrelevant” of the 2013 NFL Draft—the player picked dead last. Justice is one of four children: he has a brother named Power and sisters named Sincere and Promise.