{ { Infobox NFL team
| name = Baltimore Colts
| logo = Baltimore_Colts_logo_1961-1978.gif
| wordmark = Indianapolis Colts 2002-2020 wordmark.svg
| established = 1953
| ended = 1983
| city = Baltimore, Maryland
| misc =
| uniform =
| colors = Royal blue, white
| owner = Carroll Rosenbloom (1953–1972)Robert Irsay (1972–1983) | general manager = | coach = Keith Molesworth (1953)Weeb Ewbank (1954–1962)Don Shula (1963–1969)Don McCafferty (1970–1972)John Sandusky (1972)Howard Schnellenberger (1973–1974)Joe Thomas (1974)Ted Marchibroda (1975–1979)Mike McCormack (1980–1981)Frank Kush (1982–1983) | mascot = | nicknames = | hist_yr = 1953 | hist_misc2 = Indianapolis Colts (1984–present) | NFL_start_yr = 1953 | division_hist = Western Conference (1953–1969) Coastal Division (1967–1969) American Football Conference (1970–1983) AFC East (1970–1983) | no_league_champs = 3† | no_pre1970sb_champs = 1 | no_sb_champs = 1 | no_conf_champs = 5 | no_div_champs = 5 | league_champs = NFL Championships (pre-1970 AFL–NFL merger) (3)1958, 1959, 1968 | sb_champs = 1970 | conf_champs = NFL Western: 1958, 1959, 1964, 1968 AFC: 1970 | div_champs = NFL Coastal: 1968 AFC East: 1970, 1975, 1976, 1977 † – Does not include NFL Championships won during the same seasons as the AFL–NFL Super Bowl Championships prior to the 1970 AFL–NFL merger | playoff_appearances = NFL: 1958, 1959, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977 | no_playoff_appearances = 10 | stadium_years = Memorial Stadium (1953–1983) }}
The Baltimore Colts''' were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore, starting with its move from Dallas in 1953, to 1983, when owner Robert Irsay moved the team to Indianapolis, Indiana. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It was the second incarnation of the Baltimore Colts, the first having played for three years in the All-America Football Conference and one in the National Football League (NFL). This Baltimore Colts team played its home games at Memorial Stadium.
Franchise history
The Baltimore Colts were one of the first NFL teams to have cheerleaders, a marching band and a team "fight song" (along with the nearby Washington Redskins, forty miles southwest in the nation's capital). The Baltimore Colts were named after Baltimore's long-running annual Preakness Stakes, a premier thoroughbred horse racing event, and the second jewel of the famous Triple Crown championship series of the sport run at the historic Pimlico Race Course every May since 1873.
This third, most famous Baltimore Colts pro football franchise was officially created in 1953, but can trace its history much earlier than this, to before the NFL itself actually began in 1920: its earliest predecessor was the old Dayton Triangles, a founding member of the reorganized and renamed National Football League of 1922 (from the old previous American Professional Football Conference, later renamed A.P.F. Association a few months later in 1920) that was originally created in 1913.
Because of this link to the Dayton Triangles, the Baltimore Colts can arguably claim to have played and won, on October 3, 1920, what could be considered the very first A.P.F.A./N.F.L. professional football game, with a 14–0 defeat of the rival Columbus Panhandles at Triangle Park in Dayton, Ohio. The team went through the following changes: