Johnny Unitas would be proud…as would Raymond Berry, Jerry Hill, Don Shinnick, Bill Pellington, Andy Nelson…all of the Baltimore Colts of the Gilded Age in the town they loved to play for, and the state that loved them and never quite got over the ‘kidnapping in the snow storm’ many years ago.
Working for the Colts, and Ernie Acorsi and “Dixie” Walker, I was afforded the chance to be ever so close to the team of greats as they played home games inside the world’s ‘largest insane asylum’….
From 1966 through 1974…..my photographic skills were highly regarded by the Colts organization…then based in Hunt Valley.
Working on the sidelines, many times during the game, as close as the person sitting next to you in your car…I did my job, respected my subjects and came away with an intimate understanding of the word ‘teamwork’ those men so proudly displayed on the field and off…in their off-season jobs, their charity fund raising and overall lives in the community.
The late Carroll Rosenbloom saw to it that the players had nice homes; in nice neighborhoods…he helped set them up in businesses…to insure a means of income after the playing years concluded…
Thus, the players…the team…and the organization were out there in plain view…and the fans all knew, this was a team town, and a town team…
Then it was over…and we didn’t have our beloved Colts…we missed Johnny Unitas…and never felt he should have ended a classic career in San Diego.
But we had no control over that…and we tried to love the Stallions…and we did, some of us…it was exciting football…at least it was football in Baltimore and Memorial Stadium.
Then came the Ravens…and we all love the home town team…well, kinda, sorta…some times…not all the time…yeah, we love the Ravens…we paint our vans purple and wear Numbers 52…20…86…55…and on and on…it’s a good thing…The Ravens bring us home the Super Bowl Trophy…what more can we ask…but do we really understand what is happening here…do we Mr. Jones?
Today, watching a lucky, talented, opportunity snatching Ravens team manhandle a pitiful Cleveland Brown team I watched the sidelines on television…there is no envy to be on the field any more…I’m too old for that, hell, I’d probably get run over by Ray Lewis…and end up in Union Memorial.
No, my satisfaction today, after the game became a runaway train headed down the tracks…my satisfaction came with watching the sideline coverage of Joe Flacco and Todd Heap talking and smiling and showing us all what it was like with Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry…yes, it’s the same respect of talent and ability I guess on every great team in sports…the guys who make it happen and get the tough jobs done are the same guys who once played Pop Warner and high school, and college football…wanting those moments of pure exhilaration and accomplishment in working as a team…
The Ravens are a team for sure…the whole team wants every team mate to do their best…nothing less is acceptable…just as #52 or #20…and when it is done and the game is over…it’s not whether you’ve won or lost, but how you’ve played the game…as Grantland Rice once said.
The Ravens ‘play the game’…win, lose or draw…and those days will be around the corner as the team heads to New England next week…
But today, an epiphany of sorts…watching the players off the field as well as on…and seeing what once glimmered so brightly in my eyes when it was a different team…the dream lives on…in a great team of men…all playing the best they can…for as long as they can…
Johnny Unitas looks on as Mike Curtis tends to an injured hand. Photo by Todd Holden
Great job. I remember going to a few Colt games with you. Had them press
passes and it was dangerous work. The bastards threw whiskey bottles and
whatever. Had to keep one knee on the turf until the ref blew the play dead.
I think that we went to the first Monday night game.
Back then it was cold as hell for most games, wasn’t it. I remember at half time
we went into the Hit and Run club for food and drink and to thaw out.
Winters were much worse then. I remember going to games with Windy and
sitting up in the upper deck in the back of the horseshoe. That wind would cut
you in two and the snow would just swirl around. Remember the fucking plane
that crashed up there right after the fans left? Good times
Wow, what memories. My first sip of alcohol–a bottle of Yukon Jack being passed down the row. When it got to me, I looked at my dad, dressed to the nines in his sport coat, tie and hat, who gave me a slight nod of his head and the burning alcohol slid down my throat. My dad proudly giving me $1 to sing the Colt Fight Song to his friends in the stands, and I still remember every word. The Miami game in the fog, how did Tony Linhardt see the goalposts to kick those field goals? How about handing out the kazoos? Bob the Buffoon Irsay and his drunken outbursts before calling the Mayflower vans. I was so sad when the trucks pulled out, leaving me only with memories and depriving me of the opportunity to create memories with my own kids, one of whom went on to co-create this site. For Baltimore and Maryland, we will march on to victory….
John Unitas the best QB who ever played the game, Ray Lewis the best linebacker who ever played the game. The torch has been passed.
The irony about how the NFL returned to Baltimore is so thick you could cut it with a knife. I was a season ticket holder at Memorial for 10 years and was devastated at the mid-night theft. Then, we do the same thing to Cleveland…who cares if it was a different reason. As impressive as the Ravens are, I’ll never support them or the NFL for what it did to Baltimore, and if Tagliabue got his way, we still wouldn’t have a team.
Even if I was a supporter of the Ravens, I couldn’t afford season tickets.
So, Bob and Lodgepole, does that mean that you would not support a neighbor merely because he lived in another state before he moved next to you? Balderdash. Not supporting a team merely because it previously was located somewhere else is like blaming gravity for killing someone who falls off a roof.
That’s a terrible comparison, Edmond.
I don’t support the Ravens merely because they used to be elsewhere, I don’t support them because I was fiscally and emotionally invested in the Colts…like many in this city. I am a man of principle, so why would I welcome a man who did the exact same thing to Cleveland that Irsay did to us? So what if he didn’t do it in the middle of the night…
Then Tagliabue tells us we should build a museum instead of a football stadium and gives Jacksonville an expansion team, who some are say may now move to LA!
Edmond, you better learn to read before you mouth off…nothing, not a word of what i wrote about the Colts is in any way not supporting the Ravens….pick on something you understand…
Great article Todd! I remember watching the Colts with my dad. Of course I wasn’t very old, but no one could ever forget those amazing games with Johnny U. My mom was still alive so I was maybe 8? 10? Those were great times and exciting games! I never had the honor to see a Baltimore Colts game live, but from our house here on Geneva, it looked brutally cold! Thanks for the memories and I for one am glad to have the Ravens here in Baltimore!
At least “Big Red” didn’t leave town at the stroke of Midnight.