WHEN THE COLTS BELONGED TO BALTIMORE. By William Gildea. Ticknor and Fields. 311 Pages. $21.95.
CALLING William Gildea a Baltimore Colts fan would be akin to calling Michael Jordan a pretty good basketball player. Mr. Gildea, now a sportswriter for the Washington Post, was going to Colts games with his father when the team played in the old All America Conference in the mid-1940s.
William Gildea was 8 years old when his father took him to the first game ever played by the Baltimore Colts -- a 16-7 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers at the old Municipal Stadium on Sept. 1947.
He rooted for the Colts to move to the National Football League when the AAC went belly up at the end of the 1949 season. He was heartbroken when the team also went belly up after its inaugural NFL season in 1950. But he rejoiced when the team rejoined the league in 1953. He followed them through the championship years of 1958 and 1959, and covered them for the Washington Post starting in what I regard as the Colts' finest year -- 1965. That's when they nearly beat the Green Bay Packers in a playoff game for the Western Division championship; the Packers' Don Chandler kicked a field goal in overtime that broke Charm City's heart.
There are few more qualified than William Gildea to write the history of the Baltimore Colts, and the author has given us a truly superb memoir. His interviews with former Colts from the team's glory years -- Lenny Moore, John Unitas, Alan Ameche, Gino Marchetti, Art Donovan, Raymond Berry -- should bring back fond memories for fans.
An interview with Bert Rechichar -- who kicked a then-record 56-yard field goal against the Chicago Bears in his first attempt as a professional -- is particularly riveting. When Mr. Rechichar was a child, his father was brutally murdered. Mr. Rechichar played as though each of his opponents was the man who killed his father, Mr. Gildea writes.
Old-timers will wax nostalgic about Mr. Gildea's memories of another Colt great: quarterback Y.A. Tittle, who led the team before his more successful years with the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants. But "When The Colts Belonged To Baltimore" is not just a sports book. It is in many ways an autobiography of Mr. Gildea intertwined with the story of the Baltimore of the 1950s and 1960s. But he also includes details from more recent years, including 1984 -- when That Horrible Man skulked out of the city in the dead of night and took our team to Indianapolis.
The book is the most captivating when Mr. Gildea describes the Baltimore of his youth: the rides on the old streetcars from his home on Maine Avenue in Northwest Baltimore to downtown or the old wooden Municipal Stadium, which stood where Memorial Stadium now stands. He takes pleasant side trips, including details about how an unknown Arkansas disc jockey, Buddy Deane, came to town and got local youths hooked on rock 'n' roll.
Football buffs may lament that so much of Colts lore was left out of the book, which may be its only flaw.
For example, Mr. Gildea briefly mentions the 1965 season, which was actually the nonpareil of all NFL seasons. The Colts lost John Unitas to an injury; then they lost back-up quarterback Gary Cuozzo and were written off for the rest of the season.
Enter running back Tom Matte, who filled in superbly and nearly led the Colts to victory over the Packers in that playoff game.
Football fans today wonder why the NFL seems so dull. It's because every season after 1965 has been anticlimactic. It's a pity Mr. Gildea left out so many memorable games. But then, that's what sequels are for.
Gregory P. Kane is a reporter for The Evening Sun.