Baltimore Colts

Marlene Rosalie Hirsch, a retired secretary who had been a Baltimore Colts cheerleader, died of complications related to her cancer treatment Monday at Bel Air Health and Rehabilitation Center. She was 67 and lived in Bel Air. Born Marlene Rosalie Rebbert in Baltimore and raised on East Lombard Street near Patterson Park, she was a 1958 graduate of Catholic High School, where she was a cheerleader. For five years during the 1960s, she was a cheerleader for the Baltimore Colts. "She always maintained her favorite player was Andy Nelson," said her son Lawrence A. Hirsch of Baltimore.

Mildred Willis Loud, who had worked in a downtown Baltimore real estate firm, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 13 at her daughter's home in Northwest Baltimore. She was 90 and lived in Mount Washington. Born Mildred Willis in Betterton, she was the daughter of Ida Willis, who ran the old Wiltshire summer hotel on the Eastern Shore, and Charles Willis, a waterman. "She often fondly remembered her years there, helping her mother in the hotel, enjoying the seafood her father caught and the fresh vegetables her mother grew, and spending time at Betterton's beach," said her daughter, Lorraine Loud Wizda of Baltimore.

WASHINGTON -- Football fans don't think of red-faced, gravel-voiced Mike Ditka as a musician. But the former Chicago Bears coach said yesterday that he helped write a country song - he also does a voiceover - about aging NFL heroes tentatively called "Love of the Game." Ditka's five-minute song, soon to be sold on a CD, is part of an effort by retired NFL athletes to raise money for former players in need. The players, including Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers, also plan to sell leather jackets and vintage jerseys - one will have Sayers' name on the back.

Steadman tells it like it isIn response to some letters that have been critical of John Steadman: He tells it not only like it was, but he also tells it the way it is and how it should be. As an older Baltimore native and sports fan, it is really appreciated.The Orioles' World Series gave big thrills, as did the Bullets of Buddy Jeannette and Gus Johnson and Wes Unseld, but there probably will never be a bigger thrill or excitement than the success of the Baltimore Colts -- seeing Lenny Moore break into the open, John Unitas throw to Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti push aside two players to tackle the quarterback, and many more thrills, including the two world titles.

The 24th annual Columbia Invitational soccer tournament, one of the top five youth tournaments in the United States, will begin tomorrow at various Howard County high school and park and recreation fields, as well as at Fort Meade.Two-hundred sixty teams, representing 21 states and Canada, will participate, many of them state cup, regional and national champions.Preliminary rounds will begin tomorrow at 8 a.m. and continue through Sunday afternoon. Final matches -- all at the Fort Meade Parade Grounds -- will begin at 8 a.m. Monday.

It has been a source of continuing aggravation. Demeaning. Frustrating. Thirty-five years of franchise residency for the Baltimore Colts and then, in absentia, all that remains, to go with the joy of past achievements, is an enormous bundle of pain and regret. A team that meant so much to a city and to history now means so little.There should be more than a perishable memory, which will continue to fade with the passing of time, to mark the spot of a team that contributed in so many definable ways to the success of the NFL and its contemporary appeal.

McDonogh's Thurgood (T.C.) Cosby Jr. said he discovered his football legacy by accident."My dad and I were walking through a mall one day when I was about 10, and this guy comes up and starts talking about how great of a football player my dad was," said Cosby, 17, an Ashburton-area resident who found out that his father had played professionally for a few years.The elder Cosby, 54, starred as a running back-linebacker at City College in the early 1960s, helping build a near four-year winning streak under then-coach George Young (now vice president of the New York Giants)

On the night of Tuesday, Oct. 19, Sun columnist John Steadman sat in his room at the oncology wing of Johns Hopkins Hospital, hemorhaglng. He had attended every NFL game played by a Baltimore team since 1950, home and away, preseason, regular season and postseason. Finally, it appeared his remarkable streak was about to end."I accepted it," Steadman said. "You know that things can't go on forever."But Steadman. 72, wasn't about to quit.He stopped bleeding Wednesday -- "miraculously,' according to his doctor, William Sharfman -- and left the hospital Thursday afternoon.

After two years without them, the Ravens will debut a pair of cheerleading squads this year at the new stadium.Tryouts are scheduled for May 9 at Towson Center beginning at 8 a.m. Ravens officials envision two 20-person teams. One will be a collegiate-style, co-ed troupe and the other an all-woman dance group.University of Maryland cheerleading director Tina Simijoski will direct the cheerleaders.Twenty-four of the NFL's 30 active teams have cheerleaders, although the Browns -- forerunners of the Ravens -- were among the franchises that did not. The Baltimore Colts were the first team with cheerleaders, beginning in 1954.

It wasn't the national anthem, but it whipped people to their feet in shouts of patriotism -- Baltimore style -- yesterday at Towson's annual Fourth of July parade.The song was "Let's Go, You Baltimore Colts." And it was performed by the Baltimore Colts Marching Band in its last round of parade appearances in Towson, Dundalk and Catonsville before changing from blue to Ravens purple in a few weeks."This was my last time to yell, 'Fight, fight, fight,' " said Roseann Maher Curran of Cockeysville, who fairly shouted the fight song as the Colts band wound through the center of Towson.

Bert Jones backpedaled, ducked the rush and threw. Fifty yards away, Roger Carr gathered in the football and, having outrun two defenders, streaked into the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown. Then, as the Memorial Stadium crowd of 50,374 roared, the young Baltimore Colts receiver leaped high in the end zone, reached over the crossbar ... and spiked the ball. The fans went nuts. So did Carr, who would add two more touchdowns that afternoon in a stellar performance during the Colts' 1976 home opener.

Barry Levinson's best documentary to date receives its American premiere today at the perfect Baltimore venue: M&T Bank Stadium. "The Band That Wouldn't Die" is his funny, stirring account of how the Baltimore Colts Marching Band kept marching after the Colts moved to Indianapolis. The Colts band kept promoting the idea that Baltimore could once again be an ideal football city. Its members kept dreaming that impossible dream until it came true - and they triumphantly transfigured into the Marching Ravens.

Ravens fever is spreading fast, and it's not only football fans who are becoming infected. Yep, even those who don't give a darn about football, who wonder if Ray Lewis is Jerry's brother and think Flacco sounds like some sort of weird breakfast cereal ... even they can't help but be swept up in the excitement that overwhelms a town when its football team is one step away from the Super Bowl. Even Orioles fans with only orange and black in their veins are starting to bleed a little purple.

It might not seem surprising that some 2,000 Baltimore football fans would pack the club level of M&T Bank Stadium to see some of their idols. But the players weren't Baltimore Ravens. These were Baltimore Colts - those who had played 50 years ago in the 1958 NFL Championship game against the New York Giants. And none were more surprised by the huge turnout than the players themselves. "Wow. I did not expect all these guys to be here," exclaimed Lenny Moore. "It's like the Last Supper, or whatever.

Defensive back Rod Woodson and tight end Shannon Sharpe, former Ravens, and defensive end Bruce Smith are among first-year candidates for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The list includes 110 players, seven coaches and 16 contributors, including former Ravens owner Art Modell, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and longtime team owners Bud Adams, Jerry Jones and Ralph Wilson. Hall of Fame selectors will choose 25 candidates who will be announced next month as semifinalists.

Congratulations to our readers who identified the people in last issue's photo correctly. In the photo, Coretta Scott King (fifth from right) leads a "March on Memphis" on April 9, 1968, five days after the assassination of her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Her daughter Yolanda and sons, Martin III and Dexter, are to the left of her. To her immediate right are Ralph Abernathy, King's successor in the civil rights movement, and former Atlanta Mayor...

The nickname for athletic teams at Iowa State University is "the Cyclones." The nickname for athletic teams at the University of Iowa is "the Hawkeyes." So I made a mistake in a recent column about former U.S. Naval Academy wrestlers Lloyd Keaser and Wayne Hicks. The column said "an assistant Iowa State coach asked Hicks to work out with some 112-pound high school kid the Hawkeyes were thinking of recruiting." It should have said an assistant Iowa State coach asked Hicks to work out with some 112-pound high school kid the Cyclones were thinking of recruiting.

Walter G. "Mose" Adolph, a retired gas station owner, died of heart failure Thursday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Ruxton resident was 78. Born in Baltimore and raised on Sherwood Road in Idlewylde, he was a 1948 graduate of Towson High School. He had been a member of the Army Reserves. Family members said that age 18 he bought a Texaco station on York Road in Govans. In 1957, he was named the Maryland Service Station Owner Dealer of the Year. He was also an auto mechanic. "He was known for his friendships with members of the Baltimore Colts," said his daughter, Miriam A. Fleury of Wiltondale.

Stuart McIver Sr., a newspaper reporter whose assignments included early Baltimore Colts coverage, died Thursday of complications from surgery at North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, Fla. He was 86 and lived in Lighthouse Point, Fla. Born in Sanford, N.C., he earned a journalism degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and worked on Greensboro and Charlotte newspapers before moving to Baltimore and joining the The Sun's staff...

In the coming-of-age story of Eli Manning, the New York Giants quarterback who has led his team to the Super Bowl, there is a great measure of vindication for a football guy with strong ties to Baltimore and someone a lot of us in the sportswriting business have always rooted for. Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the Giants, who spent more than a decade with the Baltimore Colts, was the man who engineered the draft-day trade in 2004 that...