March 29th is a dark day in Baltimore history – on this day, or rather early early morning, 23 years ago, Mayflower Transit trucks from Indianapolis arrived at the Baltimore Colts training facility in a driving snowstorm. They rolled in at 2 a.m. – the team offices and equipment were quickly packed in an hour’s time and then the trucks departed, taking the Colts franchise to Indianapolis, breaking Baltimore’s heart in the process.

Has there ever been such a craven act on such a grand scale in the modern era of sports business? Colts owner Robert Irsay repeatedly had assured the city of Baltimore that he would not move the team, and all the while he was secretly negotiating with Indy, duplicity of such magnitude that he literally snuck the team out of town under cover of the night. The Colts players themselves did not know that they were moving until the wee hours of March 29th, after the trucks already had left town.

Of course, along with the entire city of Baltimore, true Colts of the likes of John Unitas, Raymond Berry and Art Donovan never forgave the Irsays their treachery, and never considered the Indianapolis edition to have any relationship whatsoever to the legendary Baltimore team. This became evident once again this year with the Indy Colts’ Super Bowl victory, as many of the old Colts wanted it made clear that this should NOT be considered the second Super Bowl championship in franchise history, because the Indianapolis franchise was an entity unto itself with no historical connection to the Baltimore era.