Schaefer, former rival found 'closure' on Colts
The well-documented acrimony between William Donald Schaefer and then-Indianapolis Mayor William H. Hudnut lasted years after the Colts skipped out of Baltimore in 1984 -- and it continued long after both men had left their respective offices. But the anger, apparently, didn’t last forever, Hudnut said in a recent interview.
Hudnut – who is credited with orchestrating the team’s move to Indianapolis – said he spoke with Schaefer a few years back and that the two managed to move beyond bitter feelings that at one time ran so deep that Schaefer refused to shake Hudnut’s hand a White House event. The phone call was mentioned in a story in The Sun this past weekend, but not the details.
In Hudnut’s words: “About two years ago, I was giving a speech in Towson. After the speech was done, some guy came up and he stuck his cell phone in front of me and said someone wants to speak with you. I said ‘hello,’ and on the other end of the line was William Donald Schaefer. We had a very cordial conversation…I told him how much I admired his work. It made me feel good.”
Schaefer, who died last week, was the mayor of Baltimore from 1971 to the beginning of 1987. He is being remembered Monday with a motorcade tour of locations in the city that he influenced during his career. Hudnut, now a Maryland resident who teaches at Georgetown University, was the mayor of Indianapolis from 1976 to 1992.
“I was very pleased that toward the end of his life he and I had a very nice phone conversation that sort of brought the whole Colts thing to closure,” Hudnut said.
