January 15, 1997|By Jon Morgan | Jon Morgan,SUN STAFF
Robert Irsay, the blustery, Chicago construction magnate who became Baltimore's most reviled sports figure when he moved his National Football League Colts to Indianapolis, died yesterday. He was 73.
Mr. Irsay died at 10: 15 a.m. at Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis of apparent heart and kidney failure, said Pamela Perry, director of public affairs at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Mr. Irsay had been in and out of hospitals since suffering a stroke on Nov. 29, 1995, which left him partially paralyzed, forced to use a wheelchair and unable to speak above a whisper. His most recent hospital stay was three weeks ago when he was admitted for a day and then sent home.
On Monday, he was admitted again and doctors informed the family that the end appeared near. His wife, Nancy, was with him when he died, Ms. Perry said.
Mr. Irsay acquired the Colts in 1972, a year after the team had won the Super Bowl and several months after it lost a conference championship game to Miami and the chance to defend its Super Bowl title.
The Colts prospered for several years before the franchise gradually deteriorated into mediocrity. With attendance falling and negotiations to improve Memorial Stadium dragging on, he shocked the sports world by moving the team to Indianapolis in 1984.
The relocation had a profound affect on Baltimore, breaking the hearts of fans but creating the political will to fund the twin-stadium Camden Yards complex.
A complicated, self-made millionaire who was both embittered by personal tragedy and emboldened by financial success, Mr. Irsay evoked fierce reactions from those who came in contact with him.
In Baltimore, he quickly developed a reputation as a meddlesome, impetuous team owner given to drunken fits of rage. But his image softened in Indianapolis as he grew more comfortable in the public role of a team owner, moving to the new city and turning over some of the decision-making to others.
"He was a tough, shrewd businessman. He was a good, generous corporate citizen," said William Hudnut, who was mayor of Indianapolis when the team moved there in 1984.
"All of us have different facets of our personality. He was a much better person than many people thought. He got some bad press," said Mr. Hudnut, now a fellow with the Urban Land Institute in Washington and a resident of Bethesda.
That was not Irsay's persona in Baltimore, where he is remembered best for drunken public appearances and unstable management -- seven coaches in his 12 seasons -- that drove away fans from a franchise that had been among the most popular in sports.
"I think it's safe to say when you went over a list of people who could be counted on to make contributions to civic affairs, he wasn't on the list," said Walter Sondheim, a long-time community leader and confidant to mayors and governors.
"I don't think there was ever a feeling that he was part of the community. People felt he was an absentee owner," Mr. Sondheim said.
Mr. Irsay became a nemesis of William Donald Schaefer, who was mayor of Baltimore when the Colts left and, as Maryland governor, converted the outrage into the political will to build Camden Yards.
"He was a very strange individual -- hard to understand," Mr. Schaefer said yesterday.
In negotiations, Mr. Irsay misled the city and used its offers to pry better deals out of other suitors, he said.
"He didn't play fair with us. He didn't tell us what he was doing," he said. "The suddenness of pulling out at night -- that was too much."
But Mr. Schaefer, now a lawyer in private practice, said there were good times with Mr. Irsay, too.
"He's dead now so I don't want to say bad things. I can't say I totally disliked him. He was different. I've always liked people that were different," he said.
"He had a very strange complex, an inferiority complex. He always had to have something more, something better than the other guy. If you had a boat, he had to have a bigger boat. If you had a car, he had to have a bigger car," Mr. Schaefer said.
The Baltimore Colts had been a pillar of the league, winning championships and selling out 51 straight games in the 1960s. They averaged more than 60,000 fans in Irsay's first year of ownership.
By the time the team's gear was hauled away in a famous caravan of Mayflower vans, attendance had dwindled to an average of only 42,000. The team's once-proud record had also suffered under Mr. Irsay: a disappointing 68 wins, 104 losses and one tie came after the team had won the Super Bowl under Irsay's predecessor Rosenbloom.
"He never created any goodwill. He only created bad will. And that's why the fans hated him. They saw through him," said Tom Matte, a running back, occasional quarterback and, later, broadcaster for the Colts when they played in Baltimore.
