Robert Irsay

Robert Irsay (March 5, 1923 – January 14, 1997) was an American professional football team owner. He owned the National Football League (NFL)'s Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts franchise from 1972 until his death in 1997. He was the father of current Colts owner Jim Irsay. Early life and education Irsay was born on March 5, 1923, in Chicago, the son of Charles Irsay (born Charles Israel) and Elaine Nyitrai, Jewish immigrants from Hungary. In 1942 he joined the United States Marine Corps. In 1946 he was hired by his father's heating and ventilation business. In 1951 Irsay founded his own business, the Robert Irsay Co., and sold the business to Zurn Industries about a year before purchasing the Colts in 1972. Career Irsay assumed ownership of the Baltimore Colts on July 13, 1972, after acquiring the Los Angeles Rams from the estate of Dan Reeves and swapping franchises with Carroll Rosenbloom, all made official on the same day. His last-minute US $19 million bid for the Rams was $2 million more than that of future Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse. Irsay's majority share in the Colts was initially 51%, with Willard Keland of Racine, Wisconsin, owning the rest. He additionally announced the appointment of Joe Thomas as Baltimore's new general manager, succeeding Don Klosterman who accompanied Rosenbloom to Los Angeles. Irsay's first controversial act with the Colts was his changing of head coaches from Howard Schnellenberger to general manager Joe Thomas after a 30–10 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles at Veterans Stadium on September 29, 1974, which extended the team's season-opening losing streak to three. While stalking the Colts sideline during the second half, he voiced his preference for Bert Jones as the starting quarterback over Marty Domres by asking Schnellenberger about when he was going to make such a change. Schnellenberger's sarcastic reply resulted in his postgame dismissal. Irsay had first gone to the press box to inform Thomas that he was the new head coach and then to the locker room to announce his actions to the Colts players before breaking the news to Schnellenberger in a heated discussion in the coaches office. Middle linebacker Mike Curtis voiced the players' displeasure by saying, "This just tears me up. In defense of Irsay, he's a nice guy, an emotional guy. He doesn't know a lot about football but sometimes you lose control in an emotional situation."