The Blue and Gold

Lore & Background

When the Colts crossed the country from Baltimore to Indianapolis in the spring of 1984, the city of roughly 700,000 people threw itself behind the team with a ferocity that surprised even the franchise's own front office. The Blue and Gold, already a symbol of NFL excellence from the Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas eras, became the visual shorthand for a new chapter. Fans draped the colors over tailgate tables, painted them on the sides of pickup trucks, and filled the RCA Dome with a sea of navy that could be seen from the I-65 interchange.

The identity deepened through the 1990s and 2000s, anchored by Peyton Manning's tenure at quarterback and crystallized in the 2006 season, when the Colts marched to Super Bowl XLI and defeated the Chicago Bears to claim their third ring. In that run, the Blue and Gold transcended sport; it became a civic badge. The city's restaurants, the local radio stations, the high-school pep rallies — all pulsed in the same two hues. The horseshoe on the helmet, that simple white curve against the navy shell, became one of the most recognizable marks in American football.

Today, the culture of the Blue and Gold is inseparable from Indianapolis itself. It is the color of the tailgate before kickoff, the gold confetti that falls after a win in Lucas Oil Stadium, the navy jersey a father hands down to a son. It is, in the words of many a Hoosier fan, simply what it means to be from here.

Reader's Guide

To understand the Blue and Gold is to understand that in Indianapolis, football is not a pastime. It is a civic rhythm. The colors show up in the tailgate lots before a single player steps onto the field, in the navy-and-gold bunting strung across downtown bars, in the horseshoe logos stitched onto children's coats in the school pickup line.

Lucas Oil Stadium, opened in 2008, is the modern cathedral of that devotion. The interior is a ring of navy seats, the field a bright green rectangle framed by the team's gold accents. On game days the atmosphere is a physical thing — a wall of sound and color that presses against the glass of the upper deck.

The tradition extends beyond the stadium. Colts fans are known for their loyalty through lean seasons, a patience born from the 1984 relocation and the long stretches of rebuilding that followed. The Blue and Gold endures not because it is always winning, but because it is always theirs. To wear the colors in Indianapolis is to declare a small, quiet allegiance: I am from here, and this is what we are.

Did You Know?

• The Colts' navy blue is a distinctly dark, near-midnight shade — not the brighter royal blue common to many other NFL franchises — giving the team's uniform a uniquely deep, almost inky appearance under stadium lights.
• Before Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008, the Colts played their Indianapolis games at the RCA Dome, a domed stadium that had been their home since the 1984 relocation.
• The Colts' three Super Bowl victories (V, XXXIV, XLI) span three different decades, making them one of the few franchises with championship pedigree across the 1970s, 2000s, and in between.