The Colts Proper Lineage

Historian Larry Schmitt helps clear the air and provide the truth about the true lineage of the current Indianapolis Colts franchise.

Historian Larry Schmitt wants to correctly preserve the gridiron history for the fact that he currently active Indianapolis Colts franchise is unique unto itself, and has no lineage to any previous franchise other than the 1953 incarnation of the NFL originated Baltimore Colts.  There is a commonly presented misconception that they are descendants of the Dayton Triangles, Brooklyn Dodgers or Dallas Texans franchises, but neither of these assumptions are true. Larry provides a chart to help clarify the lifespans of the different franchises and teams we discussed in the podcast. We are going to break his chart in segments for easier reading

Chart is courtesy of Larry Schmitt and his great historic research on these franchises.

Here is a basic rundown of the items in the chart above that Larry has researched:

The Dayton-Brooklyn franchise jumped from the NFL to the AAFC in 1946 and continued as the New York Yankees of that league until 1949 before dissolving. 
The Dallas Texans began as the Boston Yanks in 1944. In 1945 they were a merged team with the Brooklyn Tigers (who changed their name from Dodgers in 1943) and moved to NY and played as the NY Bulldogs in 1949 then NY Yanks for 1950-1951. That franchise charter was terminated when the Texans went bankrupt in the middle of the 1952 season and the league assumed operations. 
One of the ways Larry tracks this is by tracing the career movements of Clarence "Ace" Parker, the best player in the history of the Brroklyn Dodgers, Tigers who merged to create Boston/Brooklyn team  and the AAFC New York Yankees franchise. 
A new franchise charter was drawn up for the 1953 Baltimore Colts, they were an expansion team. 
It doesn't help that there was a team in Baltimore called the Colts from 1947-1950. 
Or that there have been 4 teams in New York that have called themselves Yankees or Yanks
1926-28 NY Yankees (AFL1 & NFL) 
1940 NY Yankees (AFL2) 
1946-49 NY Yankees (AAFC) 
1950-51 NY Yanks  
There's a lot of minutiae that we can get lost in the weeds Larry says but I think between the information in the chart and Larry's overview in the podcast on the subject found above there is no doubt that that there were multiple different teams named the Colts and some had no connection or any lineage to the modern day Colts that reside in Indianapolis other that the NFL originated franchise of the Baltimore Colts started in 1953.

A fun fact is that the 1954 Baltimore Colts had the first NFL cheerleading unit. The cheerleaders rooted the Blue Horseshoe on and were also part of the Colts marching band.

The banner photo is of Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland in 1958, Courtesy Wikimedia Commons and taken by an unknown.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the research of Larry Schmitt and his amazing collection of old game programs from the pro football.