History of the Baltimore Colts " This article is about the American football team that had a 31 - year tenure in the city of Baltimore , Maryland . For other usages , see Baltimore Colts ( disambiguation ) " . The Baltimore Colts , founded in 1953 , played in the National Football League from 1953 to 1983 . The team was named the Colts for Baltimore ' s rich history of horse racing . The Colts franchise moved to Indianapolis , Indiana between the 1983 and 1984 seasons . Franchise history . The Colts were the first NFL team to have cheerleaders , and a marching band . The Colts were named after Baltimore ' s annual Preakness Stakes which is why many fans are bitter that Indianapolis retained the Colt team name . The Colts franchise was officially created in 1953 , but can trace its history much earlier than that , to before the NFL actually began : its earliest predecessor was the Dayton Triangles , a founding member of the NFL that was originally created in 1913 . That team went through the following changes : The AAFC Baltimore Colts . As the result of a contest in Baltimore , won by Charles Evans of Middle River , Md . , the team was renamed the “ Colts . ” On September 7 , 1947 , wearing the green and silver uniforms , the Colts , under Head Coach Cecil Isbell , won their initial AAFC game , 16 - 7 , over the Brooklyn Dodgers . The team concluded its inaugural season before a record Baltimore crowd of 51 , 583 by losing to the New York Yankees , 21 - 7 . The Colts finished with a 2 - 11 - 1 record , good for a fourth place finish in the Eastern Division . The Colts completed the 1948 season with a 7 - 8 record , tying the Buffalo Bills for the division title . The Colts compiled a 1 - 11 mark in 1949 . Y . A . Tittle was the Colts starting quarterback . The AAFC and NFL merged in 1950 , and the Colts joined the NFL . After posting a 1 - 11 record for the second consecutive year , the franchise was dissolved by the league on January 18 , 1951 . But many Baltimore fans protested the loss of their team and continued to support the marching band ( the second in professional football , after that of the Washington Redskins ) and fan club , both of which remained in operation and worked for the team ' s revival . NFL Dallas Texans . After two seasons without professional football , NFL Commissioner Bert Bell challenged Baltimore in December 1952 to sell 15 , 000 season tickets within six weeks in order to re - enter the NFL . That 15 , 000 - ticket quota was reached in four weeks and three days . On January 23 , 1953 , under the principal ownership of Carroll Rosenbloom , the NFL ’ s Dallas Texans franchise was moved to Baltimore where , keeping the “ Colts ” nickname , the Texans team colors of blue and white were inherited . This is the franchise that exists today in Indianapolis . The Texans had a long and winding history ; they started as the Boston Yanks in 1944 and merged with the Brooklyn Tigers ( previously known as the Dayton Triangles , an original NFL team established in the 1910s ) for the 1945 season before moving to New York as the Bulldogs in 1949 . The team then became the Yanks in 1950 , and many of the players from the New York Yankees of the All - America Football Conference were added to the team . The Yanks moved to Dallas after the 1951 season , but played their final two " home " games of the 1952 season at the Rubber Bowl in Akron , Ohio . In Baltimore . In 1953 the second iteration of the Baltimore Colts took the field at Memorial Stadium on September 27 to face off against the Chicago Bears . The Colts would go on to win the game 13 - 9 and stun the Bears . The team ' s lack of experience showed as the team finished 3 - 9 . In 1955 the Colts had 12 rookies make the team . In 1956 quarterback George Shaw went down with a serious injury in the fourth game of the season . The Colts unproven backup , Johnny Unitas , would go on to win half the remaining eight games to give the Colts a record of 5 - 7 for the season . The Colts won the NFL Championship in 1958 and repeated in 1959 . The 1958 NFL Championship game is widely known as the " Greatest Game Ever Played " for its dramatic conclusion with quarterback Johnny Unitas marching the Colts downfield in sudden death overtime and Alan Ameche scoring the winning touchdown on a 1 - yard run . Much of the credit for Baltimore ' s success went to Hall of Famers Johnny Unitas , halfback Lenny Moore , and wide receiver Raymond Berry . Baltimore returned to the NFL championship game in 1964 but lost to the Cleveland Browns 24 - 0 . In 1968 , Unitas was injured and replaced by Earl Morrall who became the league ' s MVP . The 1968 Colts won their division with a 13 - 1 record and won the NFL championship game 34 - 0 over the Browns . The Colts ' season ended with a shocking upset loss to the AFL New York Jets in Super Bowl III at the Miami Orange Bowl . In 1970 , the merger of the 16 - team National Football League and the 10 - team American Football League was finally completed with on - field realignment to create two 13 - team " conferences " within the expanded 26 - team NFL . All ten teams previously in the AFL were placed in the American Football Conference . Thirteen of the sixteen teams previously in the NFL were retained in the National Football Conference , but three old NFL teams ( the Colts , the Pittsburgh Steelers , and the Cleveland Browns ) were placed in the American Football Conference in order to equalize the two conferences . That same year the Colts , still led by Johnny Unitas , won the AFC East Division title with a record of 11 - 2 - 1 . In Super Bowl V the Colts won a close , low - scoring game against the Dallas Cowboys . With nine seconds left in the game placekicker Jim O ' Brien kicked the game winning field goal which gave Baltimore its first Super Bowl championship . Later in the decade the Colts , led by new quarterback Bert Jones and running back Lydell Mitchell , won division titles in 1975 , 1976 , and 1977 , but each time lost in the playoffs . Following this relative success in the 1970s , the Colts suffered a string of disappointing seasons , often finishing in last place in their division . The move to Indianapolis . The city of Indianapolis , Indiana made an offer for the Colts to move there . Baltimore was unsuccessful at persuading them to stay , so the city government attempted to get the state legislature to condemn the Colts franchise and give ownership to another group that would promise to keep the Colts in Baltimore . Oakland , California had just had some success in court trying the same tactic with the Oakland Raiders . The Colts ownership , having been alerted by the events in California , were not going to wait to see what the government was going to do to them . Under the threat of eminent domain from the city of Baltimore , the team relocated to Indianapolis in the middle of the night . Had they not , Irsay ' s team would likely have been taken away from him the next day , so he essentially had no choice . The city of Baltimore did not give up and sued to condemn the franchise anyway and seize ownership . Baltimore did not prevail in court .