Baltimore's NFL champions
Baltimore's NFL teams, the Colts and Ravens have played in five league title games and won four of them.
The Baltimore Colts played in what is known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played," the NFL Championship Game of 1958 against the New York Giants. They repeated in 1959, with the title game played in Memorial Stadium, again against the Giants.
Who could forget the 1969 Super Bowl III heartbreak against the Jets and Joe Namath? Or Super Bowl V in 1971, when Jim O'Brien kicked the game-winning field goal against Dallas?
That brings us to 2001, when the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV in that magical season.
I chose the picture of Johnny Unitas running in for the score in the 1959 NFL Championship Game because Unitas symbolizes the spirit of Baltimore football. This photo was taken by Joe DiPaola, who himself had the determination to become a photographer. He bought himself a camera while a copy boy at The Sun and taught himself how to take pictures. He proved capable and earned a spot on The Sun's photo staff.
Our Website has a page devoted to the Colts' 1958 "Greatest Game." The page has a link to a gallery of photos from that game, plus from last year's 50th reunion of that championship team.
Finally, here's the link to the gallery from the Ravens win in Super Bowl XXXV.
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Comments
I'm sorry if this is nitpicking, but when talking about the Colts' titles, there's a difference between their "league" and "world" championships.
The 1968 Colts were league champs (NFL) even thought they lost the Super Bowl to the Jets in Jan '69 since the AFL was a separate loop from 1960-69 (with a world title game between the two league winners only in the final four years of that decade). When the Colts beat Dallas in '70 (Jan '71), everyone was under the NFL umbrella. But not in the '60s. Thus, the Colts won four league titles while in Baltimore, but only three world titles.
Officially, Baltimore's "league" title games are '58, '59, '64 (when they lost NFL title game in Cleveland), '68 (when they beat Cleveland two weeks before the loss to NYJ), '70 and '00 - the latter two being Super Bowls in Jan. of the following year.
Thus, the NFL considers the league title game record for the Baltimore portion of Colts' history as 4-1 and 1-0 for the Ravens -- making Balto's own total 5-1.
Pro football history certainly isn't as 'orderly' as major league baseball's is since 1901!
Posted by: Thomber Hugoharris | January 30, 2009 3:34 PM