Baltimore football fans still sour over Colts' exit in 1984

BALTIMORE, Md. (WISH) - Ahead of the NFL Wildcard playoff game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens this weekend in Baltimore, 24-Hour News 8 anchor Walter Allen explored the lingering resentments in the city the Colts once called home.

The Colts haven’t called Baltimore home since 1984, but some football fans still harbor bitter feelings about the team’s exit.

Mayflower moving trucks moved the team out in the middle of the night to avoid a political maneuver meant to force them to stay.

At Duda’s, a bar that has been open in Baltimore since 1949 – and is still decorated with Colts pictures on the wall – some say it’s what the team took with them when it left that’s the real heartbreaker for fans.

“The big thing,” said Scott Curlee, now a Ravens fan, “ is how they left … , really the fact that they took all the records. Johnny Unitas basically never played for Baltimore. He played for Indianapolis. That’s what really upsets a lot of people around here in Baltimore, and I think that’s fair."

The Ravens arrived in Baltimore in 1996 – when they moved from Cleveland, where they had been since 1946. After outrage from fans, city officials and sponsors, team owners struck a deal with the NFL that the Baltimore team would be a new franchise, leaving the Browns team name – and its records – intact in Cleveland. The Browns franchise was reformed in 1999.

You can watch the playoff game between the Colts and Ravens at 1 p.m. Sunday on WISH-TV.