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The professional American football team now known as the Indianapolis Colts previously played in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1953 to 1983. This article chronicles the team's history during their time as the Baltimore Colts during that period. Named in honor of Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing (including the Preakness Stakes, one of the events in the U.S. Triple Crown championship series), this was the second incarnation of the "Baltimore Colts" after the first one played from 1947 to 1950. The 1953-83 Baltimore Colts franchise played its home games at Memorial Stadium during its entire tenure in Baltimore before relocating to Indianapolis, Indiana, in March 1984. ==Franchise history== The 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 southeast in the nation's capital). The Colts were named after Baltimore's 142-year-old annual "Preakness Stakes", a premier thoroughbred horse racing event, second jewel of the famous "Triple Crown" championship series of the sport. The third, most famous Colts pro football franchise was officially created in 1953, but can trace its history much earlier than that, 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 American Professional Football Conference, later renamed A.P.F. Association a few months later in 1920) that was originally created in 1913. Because of the link to the ancient Dayton Triangles, the 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: * Dayton Triangles pro football team relocated to New York City to the Borough of Brooklyn, New York and was renamed Brooklyn Dodgers (separate from the more famous Brooklyn Dodgers of major league baseball's National League) in 1930. * Changed name to Brooklyn Tigers in 1944. In the same year, the Boston Yanks are founded. * Merged with Boston Yanks in 1945 as the World War II-era war-time "The Yanks". * Brooklyn franchise canceled in 1945 by the League and the team's players were given to the Boston Yanks, as a parallel team, the (New York Yankees of the new competing post-war All-America Football Conference - A.A.F.C.) is founded by the Tigers' former owner, Dan Topping. * Miami Seahawks of the A.A.F.C. are folded and replaced in the Conference's second season by a new franchise in Baltimore given the name of the "Colts" after a name selection contest among the new Baltimore fans. The Colts later joined the reorganized N.F.L. in 1950, following the merger of the A.A.F.C. with the older league, along with the addition of teams San Francisco 49ers and the Cleveland Browns. This second Baltimore Colts franchise was later dissolved by the NFL for financial reasons after only the one 1950 season on January 18, 1951. * Boston Yanks were canceled upon request of the team owner for tax purposes. The owner was given a new franchise for New York City in 1949, now named the New York Bulldogs. The name was then changed to the New York Yanks the following season in 1950. The Yanks absorbed much of the previous football Yankees' roster the next year. * New York Yanks of the NFL were canceled after the one 1951 season and replaced in 1952 by the Dallas Texans, with the first expansion of the League into high school and collegiate football crazy Texas and first into the southern part of the United States. * Texans owner returned the team leadership to the League ownership of the NFL during mid-season. The Texans become a "road" team halfway through the 1952 season with no "home base", playing only "away" games and folded after the one 1952 season. * Dallas Texans franchise was sold to Baltimore civic and sports interests led by Carroll Rosenbloom on January 23, 1953, where a new team was established resurrecting the previous well-liked "Colts" nickname, they however replaced the old AAFC/NFL team colors of silver and green with the Texans' team colors of blue and white (also coincidentally used by the later NFL second expansion team in 1960 of the iconic Dallas Cowboys, along with silver). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Baltimore Colts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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