Unitas

Indianapolis -- The question still makes Peyton Manning wince, many years and countless times since it first was asked. The comparison to a legend who wore the familiar blue-and-white uniform, with the trademark horseshoe on the helmet, remains an uncomfortable topic for the Indianapolis Colts quarterback. Yet considering Manning will be coming back to Baltimore again tonight to play the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, and given what Manning has accomplished over his near decade in the NFL, the subject begs to be broached once more: Is Manning the modern day John Unitas?

Ravens trivia Ravens trivia quiz. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/ravenstrivia Ray Frager's media blog Read a blog about sports media by Sun columnist Ray Frager. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/mediumwell Cal Ripken A look back at Cal Ripken's career. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/cal Johnny Unitas A tribute to the Baltimore Colts' great quarterback. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/unitas

PHOENIX -- Driven to keep John Unitas memorabilia in Baltimore, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti confirmed yesterday that he was the anonymous bidder who purchased 10 items relating to the legendary Colts quarterback for $165,370. At the Feb. 23 auction, Bisciotti bought a helmet worn by Unitas in the 1960s for $54,050 and the quarterback's first contract with the Baltimore Colts for $29,900. Bisciotti intends to lend some of the items to the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards so that fans can view them.

Cal Ripken Jr.'s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday punctuated his legacy as one of Baltimore's greatest sports figures. Ripken not only played brilliantly, but he also always seemed to embody the very characteristics Baltimoreans use to describe their city. He was a small-town boy who spent his entire career with the franchise he grew up cheering. He didn't always have the game mastered, but he never stopped working to master it. He could be counted on. "I'd have to put him right at the top," said fellow Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson when asked to place Ripken in the Baltimore firmament.

Alex Hawkins sees it in the mannerisms, the way Peyton Manning sometimes cocks his helmet back on his head or the look on his face coming off the field. Gino Marchetti sees it in the way Manning stands in the pocket and in the way his shoulder pads sit on his broad shoulders. "They're kind of up a little bit," the Hall of Fame defensive end said. For Hawkins and Marchetti - and perhaps countless others - there is an undeniable, almost eerie similarity in the way Manning plays quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts and the way John Unitas used to play quarterback for the Baltimore Colts.

Nearly three decades have passed since he last muscled the ball downfield at Memorial Stadium, but John Unitas, 66, strolls into the old place like a homeowner returning from a weekend fishing trip. Hands in his pockets, an unbuttoned sports coat flapping, he keeps his head down and whistles a soft tune as he walks through the unlighted corridors and out onto the field.It is a drizzly, foggy morning. But the names on the "Ring of Honor" that fronts the upper deck can still be read from midfield.

NEW YORK -- Film study is, of course, second nature to most quarterbacks, so Johnny Unitas has gotten used to seeing his exploits on a big screen over the past 40 years.But when the lavish documentary of his life and exploits ended in a screening room at the HBO building here Monday, Unitas looked a little sheepish standing at a podium, as if the achievements he had just seen belonged to someone else."It's kind of funny to watch yourself like that," said Unitas, flanked by two of his sons.

The Ravens' new owner-in-waiting grew up loving the Colts and hating the Redskins. He cheered for Paul Blair and the Orioles, for John Lucas and the Terps. When the NFL left Baltimore, he plunked down season-ticket money for an expansion team that never came.Now Steve Bisciotti is buying the team that did come. When your company claims three-quarters of the Fortune 1,000 as clients, you can do that."His business acumen is matched by his love for sports," says sports agent and attorney Ron Shapiro.

What John Unitas represents to football and America deserves more than this -- a lame right hand that is almost useless, the direct result of an injury sustained in a game the Baltimore Colts played more than 30 years ago.Ironically, the legendary "Golden Arm" of Unitas, who passed for more than 40,000 yards in a glittering Hall of Fame career, was so severely damaged as a result of being hurt against the Dallas Cowboys in an exhibition on Sept. 7, 1968, that he can hardly comb his hair, pick up a newspaper or lift a coffee cup -- no exaggeration.

When Mike Antonoro, the ESPN senior producer in charge of the "SportsCentury" project, was told that the ranking of Colts legend Johnny Unitas as the 32nd-greatest athlete of the 20th century might strike Baltimoreans as too low, he could only muster a weary chuckle of resignation."

Forty-four years later, Gary Cuozzo recalls every nuance of his first NFL start. Who wouldn't, having replaced John Unitas in the lineup and passed for five touchdowns? It was the game of a lifetime for Cuozzo, then the Baltimore Colts' understudy who made pro football history on a brisk November day in 1965. No quarterback, before or since, has done what Cuozzo did in his first full game. Subbing for an injured Unitas, he led the Colts to a 41-21 victory in Minnesota, the seventh straight win for the playoff-bound club.

Leafing through his mail Monday, Jim Mutscheller assumed it was just another autograph request - until he examined the postmark. The letter was from the Czech Republic. In his best English, the writer asked Mutscheller, 79, to sign two bubble-gum cards of the Baltimore Colts tight end in his heyday. Mutscheller complied and sent the football cards back. "In all these years, this is the first time I ever got [fan mail] from a foreign country," he said. "I thought, 'Man, I'm really getting popular.

He didn't have a crew cut, wear high-tops or walk with a funny, stoop-shouldered gait. Had Marty Domres looked the part, would it have mattered? Whoever replaced John Unitas as quarterback of the Baltimore Colts was sure to get booed. The job fell to Domres, and when he took Unitas' place in 1972, the fans let him have it. No matter that Domres was a bright, articulate Ivy League graduate who had been a first-round draft pick. Unitas was their blue-collar hero. Truth is, the two men hit it off. And while Domres played only three full seasons in Baltimore, he eventually settled here, stayed friends with Unitas and often played golf with him in retirement at Hillendale Country Club.

Colleges Towson to host women's lacrosse championship in '10 Towson University was selected to host the 2010 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse championship, bringing both the men's and women's NCAA tournament finals to Baltimore next year. The women's games will take place at Johnny Unitas Stadium on May 28 and 30, while the men's final four returns to M&T Bank Stadium on May 29 and 31. It's the first time both championships will be held in the same vicinity. "We had not originally submitted a bid for the championship, but upon the request of the NCAA, we felt we could host the championship one more year prior to our expected construction for a new arena," Towson athletic director Mike Hermann said in a statement.

Northwestern's Katrina Dowd has scored more goals than any other player in the NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament, and her record-breaker would make any highlight reel, but not just because it put the No. 1 Wildcats in position to play for their fifth straight national championship. With her team trailing by a goal in overtime of Friday night's tournament semifinal, Dowd made a desperation dive to save a loose ball and flipped it over her shoulder into the goal. The junior attacker seemed to have no angle toward the net, but her 18th tournament goal tied the game at 12 in the first overtime and Meredith Frank's goal won it, 13-12, over No. 4 Penn one minute, 27 seconds into sudden-death double overtime at Johnny Unitas Stadium at Towson University.

Each Tuesday online in the Toy Department, veteran Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's going on in his or her life in a segment called "Catching Up With ..." He was a first-round draft pick in 1971, a rugged tailback from North Carolina who looked a little like Robert Redford and ran a lot like Tom Matte. For the next 11 years, Don McCauley would serve the Baltimore Colts as an unassuming role player with a strong work ethic and a me-last mind-set.

March 29, 1984, remains the most infamous day in Baltimore sports history. Ask longtime residents about it and they'll practically spit the words "Irsay" and "Mayflower." As the moving trucks rolled out in the snow that morning, they carried away the blue-and-white Colts gear that had meant so much to Baltimoreans in the John Unitas era. Surely, that legacy had no place in Indianapolis. Worse still, the departure left city residents to confront their fears that Baltimore was a third-rate town.

We can't exactly blame ESPN, because the finalists were determined by a fan vote, but Maryland didn't make the cut in the network's Mt. Rushmore of sports top five. ... Maryland's Michael Phelps, Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson and John Unitas should have beaten out at least one of them. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mediumwell)

It is a rivalry of similarity and proximity rather than difference and distance. Baltimore and Pittsburgh are midsized cities on the water that are separated by a four-hour drive and the Allegheny Mountains. Both reached heights of prosperity in the Industrial Age and watched too many jobs ebb away in the late 20th century. Both have pinned hopes for the future on service and research industries and on downtown redevelopment. And yes, both love pro football above any other sport. When the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers clash Sunday in their highest-stakes game ever, they will do so with a brotherly intensity.

Fifty years ago, an undersized defensive back named Andy Nelson climbed into a car alongside a 25-year-old, fresh-faced quarterback. Was it a Pontiac? A Chevrolet? Tricky thing about time: Just as easily as it can help shape a legacy, it can fade a memory. Nelson and his friend drove together to Memorial Stadium, where they would catch a bus to the airport, where they would board a plane for New York, where they would make history just a couple of days later. If there were only a way to get into his head.