JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s been 46 years since Colts Fever came to Jacksonville.
Decades before the city pulled off a monumental upset when it was awarded the 30th franchise in the NFL, 50,000 football-starved fans were buzzing about the possibility of the then-Baltimore Colts moving to town.
In 1979, volatile Baltimore Colts owner Robert Irsay, irked by growing issues about a new stadium, had begun flirting with cities about moving the Colts.
Jacksonville was one of them.
Mayor Jake Godbold was just seven months into his first term and felt the football fever itch. It was Godbold’s zest to bring an NFL team to Jacksonville that jumpstarted the process.
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He invited Irsay to the Gator Bowl to see just how badly the city wanted a team.
On Aug. 15, 1979, Irsay landed on a 50-yard line painted with “Jacksonville Colts” -- in Channel 4’s Sky 4 helicopter -- and was greeted by a packed stadium.
WATCH: Video from the News4JAX archives of Irsay’s visit:
“The mayor got somebody to donate free soft drinks and hot dogs for whomever showed up; 50,000 people came to the Gator Bowl to see Robert Irsay — dressed head to toe in a white suit — step out of the Channel 4 helicopter onto the 50-yard line,” longtime News4JAX anchor Tom Wills recalled.
Irsay’s arrival gave the city faint — and false — hope that it could pull off the impossible and land an NFL team.
“The crowd chanted, ‘We want the Colts,’” Wills said. “Irsay told Godbold privately the Gator Bowl was a dump and would have to be completely rebuilt to accommodate any NFL team.”
Of course, Irsay took the Colts to Indianapolis and Jacksonville was left feeling like it had been kicked in the stomach. But despite the disappointment, Colts Fever had done something in the River City. The football fuse had been lit.
The city did have the USFL’s Bulls for a few years before that league folded, but it wasn’t until the creation of the Touchdown Jacksonville group in 1989 that the city got serious about drawing an NFL team to town.
While Godbold started the effort to bring a team to Jacksonville, former Mayor Tommy Hazouri kept the flame ignited, helping lay the groundwork for the city to make a successful bid.
Late in the afternoon on Nov. 30, 1993, the news became official.
Majority owner Wayne Weaver and the ownership group had successfully waited out a botched process and bid of the ownership group in St. Louis to join Carolina as the newest teams in the league.
Weaver stayed with the team for 18 years before selling the franchise to Shad Khan for $770 million.
Jacksonville winning a franchise remains one of the longest of long shots in NFL history.
