The Baltimore Blues
The Baltimore Blues
The Colts and Civic Identity
This chapter examines how Baltimore's professional football team, the Colts, exemplified the city's values and sense of self, while John Unitas, one of the team's key players, personified the community's idealized civic identity and spirit. From the late 1950s until 1984, the Colts, purchased by Robert Irsay in 1972, were a source of pride for many Baltimoreans. The Baltimore Colts won four National Football League (NFL) championships, the most memorable of which came on December 28, 1958, at the expense of the New York Giants. This chapter first recounts the 1958 championship game between the Colts and the Giants and highlights the role played by Unitas in his team's win. It then describes changes in the city and the Colts during the 1960s and 1970s, along with the team's relocation to Indianapolis in 1984 that left some people in anguish. It suggests that the Baltimore Colt blues will eventually fade away and along with them will go one facet of the city's former identity.
Keywords: community, Baltimore Colts, New York Giants, National Football League, John Unitas, Baltimore, professional football, Indianapolis, civic identity, Robert Irsay
Illinois Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
