Amazing Fun Facts About the Indianapolis Colts
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The Indianapolis Colts were established in 1953. Formerly the Baltimore Colts, their lineage goes back way further, all the way back before the forming of the NFL itself, to the Dayton Triangles.
Back in 1913, The Dayton Triangles started playing, taking their name from the multiple affairs and love triangles that were going on between players, cheerleaders, fans, hotdog vendors, folks from surrounding town, local media and the mascot named Isosceles.
“You would not believe the cheating and philandering that was going on with the Triangles,” Ramm Daniel, famed football historian said. “It got so bad, the police had to shut down all these flophouse hotels around the stadium. Otherwise, games would never get finished. Halftime breaks were turning into half-day romps. One game took 17 hours to finish, and the quarterback never did make it back for the second half.”
The Triangles eventually turned into the Brooklyn Tigers who merged with the Boston Yanks who became the Dallas Texans who became the Baltimore Colts. When they were the Texans, they even played two home games in Akron, Ohio.
The only cities the team didn’t play in were Charlotte, Orlando and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. “We tried to get them to play for us in Moose Jaw, eh,” said Dorian Oeggl, who spearheaded the campaign to acquire the team. “The deal broke down when they would not agree with our request to change the name to the Moose Jaw Breakers.”
During the Colts first year in Baltimore in 1953, they were captained by Keith Molesworth, who played both professional baseball and football. He played football for the Ironton Tanks, an indie pro team in Ironton, Ohio, who went undefeated in 1922 and were possibly the best team never to play in the NFL.
“There were a lot of good teams in Ohio in those days,” said Mr. Daniel. “They had not only the Ironton Tanks, but the Ravenna Assault Rifles, Canton Concussion Grenades, the Chillicothe SCUD Missles and the Akron Anti-Artillery Aircrafts.”
