WEBVTT - The Move | Episode 4: Aftermath 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.479 It's April second, nineteen eighty four. Twenty thousand people are 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:12.760 in the stands at the Hoosier Dome, which was four 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.640 times the expected attendants, to celebrate the arrival of the 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.600 Colts to Indianapolis, just four days after the Mayflower vans 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.560 rolled into town from Baltimore. Indianapolis Mayor Bill HUDNUTT triumphantly 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:27.880 walks out of a tunnel onto the green astro turf 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.520 at the Hoosier Dome. Next to him as Robert ur say, 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.519 it's a striking sight. Hudnut waves to the crowd, grinning 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.080 ear to ear. Then with his left hand he grabs 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.519 Robert Ursay's right hand and he lifts it up in 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.040 the air. The two men walk into the Hoosier Dome, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.519 hands held high. As Hudnut makes his way to a 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.320 stage on the field, he finds the hand of Deputy 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.160 Mayor David Frick, the man most responsible for nailing down 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.680 the city's deal to land the Colts, and he hoists 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.320 Frick's hand in the air too. Hudnut does not stop smiling. 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.200 He knows the gravity the moment. He is the mayor 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:07.760 who brought the NFL to Indianapolis. Finally, the dignitaries of 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.640 the day reach a stage on the field. Frick strides 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.200 to a brown podium with two things on it, white 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.680 letters spelling out Indiana Convention Center. Who's your dome? Beneath 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:24.240 it the NFL shield. Frick is the MC of the day. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.560 Good morning, what a great day for NABLAS. 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.759 Over about thirty minutes, Indiana's business and government dignitaries take 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.479 turns at the podium, drawing raucous cheers from the crowd 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.319 for their role in bringing the NFL to Indianapolis. Eventually, 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.200 Colts head coach Frank Kush, the hard ass hired from 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.840 Arizona State who wouldn't be coaching in Phoenix that fall, 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:52.080 takes the mic. 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:52.920 The next group. 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:53.440 I likes that. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.400 I introduces what I would call. 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:05.440 Mayflower midnight Woovers. We have a couple of young kids here. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.480 They just got their honorary degree from IU. I think 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.680 they're about sixteen or seventeen year old. They're geniuses. Pete 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.799 Ward that handles our administrative assistant we have on the 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.320 football team and the coaches in a personnelity apartment. 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:19.519 We want to thank you. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.120 We are going to give it the best effort to 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.000 produce a winning football team here and make you proud 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.520 of the Indianapolis Colts. 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:27.880 Thank you. 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.880 Eventually, Mayor Bill Hudnutt and Colts owner Robert Orsay, the 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.240 guests of honor take the podium. Mayor Hudnut gets a 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.520 standing ovation and the grin he's had splashed across his 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.040 face it hasn't faded. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.800 This is a great day for the city of Indianapolis. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.640 And I can't tell you how proud I am to 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:51.320 welcome Barbers and the Indianapolis called to this magnificent facility 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:52.600 with these blue. 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.560 And white seats. 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.639 Hudnut gives out keys to the city to several people, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.919 include Jim Orsay, Michael Chernoff, and Frank Cush from the Colts, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.560 and then he introduces the owner of Indianapolis's pro football team. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:12.400 Now the moment we've all been waiting for the opportunity 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:17.280 to introduce to you the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.880 I'm going to read a proclamation and then he's going 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:22.880 to have the floor and I'm gonna give him a 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.240 key to the city as well as a proclamation, because 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.400 this is one of the greatest days in the history 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:29.800 of this city. Ladies and gentlemen. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.800 After Huddnut proclaims April second, nineteen eighty four, is Indianapolis. 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.760 Colts stay in Indianapolis. He welcomes Robert or Say to 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.280 the stage. They raise their hands in the air one 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.240 more time, and then Robert or Say begins speaking to 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.280 twenty thousand of his newest fans. 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:57.000 Thank you very much, needless of saying, I'm very glad 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.119 to be here. We did go through several mons. Wasn't 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.000 easy that we did talk to other people. I just 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:09.560 I'll give you a little review what happened, and it 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.960 won't take too much time of years. But we did 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.440 talk to several other cities. We did choose in Annapolis. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.679 Your negotiator, mister Frickett, and your mayor didn't give anything away. 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:26.479 We had better offers. I did choose in Indianapolis. I'm 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.719 a Midwestern to start with. Second of all, I think 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.039 the treatment and negotiations were more than fairer with this 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.520 city than any others I negotiated with. So I think 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.279 you could put this on a burner. This negotiation with 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.760 in Annapolis was not really all for dollars. But we're 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.080 very happy to be here. We're pleased at your Dome Stadium. 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.239 We're pleased at the arrangements. We maighed with your city, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.320 and we just hope that our team will back you 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.480 up and take you to the spot you belongs as 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.640 a pro team in Innneapolis and NFL. 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:00.000 Thank you. 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.159 But the pomp and circumstance of the moment and the 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.440 joyous looks on the faces of those at the Hoosier 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.440 Dome that day were only a brief respite for a 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.560 franchise that in many ways was completely starting over just 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.520 five months before the nineteen eighty four season was set 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.720 to begin. Pete Ward, now the Colts chief operating officer, 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.719 was an administrative assistant when the team moved in nineteen 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:29.240 eighty four. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.239 We didn't really know where to be. We didn't have phones, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.599 we didn't have anybody the answer phones. We didn't have stationary, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.320 we didn't know what our address was. We didn't have 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.719 a copyer in. It was just started a while, starting 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.359 a franchise from scratch, except that you had your players 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:44.760 and your coaches under contract. 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.159 So how did the Colts go about the gargantuan task 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.880 of getting their first season in Indianapolis off the ground 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.200 and back in Baltimore? What was the fallout in a 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.200 region rocked by the midnight departure of their football team. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.200 Like the talking has some life during wartime and you 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.480 know that gunfire and the distance of time getting. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.400 Used to it now Jimmersay, the owner and CEO of 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:07.919 the Indianapolis Colts. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.760 Is just like so absurd that no one would possibly 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.960 you just could not believe what was going on in 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:15.719 that first year. 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.480 I mean, it just it. 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:18.640 Was just unbelievable. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:36.279 This is episode four of The Move Aftermath. The goal 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.680 for as Cush called them, the Mayflower Midnight Movers on 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.839 March twenty eighth, nineteen eighty four, was not organization. The 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.920 goal was speed. It didn't matter how boxes were packed 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.919 or how the trucks were loaded up. It just mattered 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.520 that the boxes were packed and the trucks were loaded 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.679 up before the State of Maryland could authorize the City 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.000 of Baltimore to try to seize the Colts through eminent domain. 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.360 And that left an absolute mess to sort through after 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.919 the trucks arrived at Fall Creek Elementary School on the 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:09.359 east side of Indianapolis. Remember what Pete Ward said in 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.520 episode three about how the Owings Mills facility was packed up. 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.520 It wasn't like, Okay, i's suit this office in this office, 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.440 so I couldn't be everywhere to label box it. It 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.360 was just mass chaos, and so that's how things ended 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.880 up being packed and shipped. And when we got to Indianapolis, 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.120 there was just a big pile of boxes and desks. 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.960 You know, we new Bank's hat and the footballs and everything. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.640 Ward, who was then a twenty something you described himself 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.040 as quote cheap labor, found a mattress. He stashed it 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.320 at Fall Creek Elementary School and he went to work 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.840 both exhausted and energized at the same time. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:44.720 You know what it was, So he had so much 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.720 adrenaline because you were so excited, because the city was excited. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:47.960 You know. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:53.040 It just was such a different feeling than Baltimore. So 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:59.040 you're excited, but you're also just overwhelmed and mentally exhausted 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.760 because there's so many first yet hardly had any sleep, 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.240 and there's so much to do. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:05.880 It took about a week of nearly round the clock 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:07.560 work for the Colts to get set up at their 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.960 new facility, which again was an abandoned elementary school, and 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.880 so an NFL team which provided some of the highest 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.480 paying jobs to some of the largest men in our country, 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.760 was about to set up shop in really an elementary school. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:28.840 No one could. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:29.760 Possibly believe it. 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:30.040 You know. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.800 It's like we're using this grade school sports field which 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.679 was barely big enough for a football field, and we 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.160 got to get this field ready in four weeks, you know, 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:41.280 for mini camp. 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.079 While Indianapolis's movers and shakers, led by Mayor Bill Hudnutt, 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.680 had stuck their collective necks out to build the sparkly 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.640 new Hoosier Dome, the city had not also built a 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.640 practice facility for an NFL team. That would come later 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.600 once a team arrived back in Maryland. Though the Colts 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.960 complex in Owings Mills was state of the art, in Indianapol, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.520 the Colts would have to set up where children used 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.160 to learn about states and art. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.640 When we landed, they kind of buttered us up. They 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.600 took us to the brand new Hoosier Dome. 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.240 John Scott was the Colt's equipment manager in nineteen eighty four. 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.680 And wow was that cool. I mean, especially for an 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:16.360 equipment guy. 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:17.160 All our home. 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.360 Games are in no rain, no infield, in dirt or whatever. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.640 So we saw that and it was great and even 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.720 the seats were blue and white, you know, like it 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.600 was made for us. So now we're going to take 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.439 you to the complex. I'm thinking, great, I hope it's 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.120 as nice as the one in Baltimore. And we pull 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:40.120 up to Fall Creek Elementary School. Yes, I why are 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:40.559 we here? 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.200 A new complex for the Colts on the west side 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.080 of Indianapolis, which is where the team still practices to 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.680 this day, was under construction and expected to be completed 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.760 in nineteen eighty five. Fall Creek Elementary School was a 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.800 temporary solution. The most important thing to both parties, the 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.079 city of Indianapolis and the Colts, was that, well the 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:01.280 culture in Indianapolis. 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.760 You know, you go inside these rooms that's going to 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.160 be for the offensive linemen, and you walk in there 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.559 and there's little tiny seats because it was the first 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.240 grade room. You know, I said, well those are gott 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.240 to go. You know. There was a lot of had 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.559 living I gues whatever the word is, just to try 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:17.720 to figure out how are we going to make this 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.960 work for an NFL you know, team to be in 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:22.000 an elementary school. 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.160 Fall Creek Elementary was indeed retrofitted to house an NFL team. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.240 Showers were put in not for four foot tall kids, 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.920 but for six foot tall adults. Coaches and front office 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.480 staffers were assigned to classrooms and where kids were once 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:46.079 taught multiplication was now where pro football players would be 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.640 taught how to defend Dan Marino. Jim Rsay, then the 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.280 team's general manager, set up his office in the school library. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.240 The cafeteria was divided into becoming the locker room, training room, 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.800 and equipment room. Half of the gymnasium came the weight room. 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.280 We put a dividing wall on their old basketball court 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.000 and half was going to be the weight room. And 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.760 I remember I was there late one night. Like I said, 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.240 there was this wall dividing the basketball court, and then 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.400 there was the weight room, which wasn't much of a 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.360 weight room, but you know, we had no security, We 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.080 had NOMI, and so all of a sudden, you know, 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.320 it's nighttime and I'm working. And as we were working, 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.320 you know, sixteen hour days, I hear this. I walk 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:37.320 into the opposite half of the basketball car and I 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:42.360 hear this, like on the floor. You know, I'm like, 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.760 what is there is someone in here to rip his off? 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:48.760 I mean I don't know. Of course, no cell phones, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.360 but you know, what the hell am I going to do? 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.720 And so you know, I'm meekly peeking around the corner 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.240 of the wall and Bob Turpin he's in there, the 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.800 handful of two handfuls of them, and m's. 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:01.000 Going like. 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.280 Outside. An AstroTurf field was installed, but only seventy yards 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.600 could fit on the property and there were no end zones. 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.600 They put a makeshift astro turf field down and as 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:15.679 we got into the season. I'll never forget this. 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.160 Matt Bozo was a wide receiver on the Colts in 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:19.000 nineteen eighty four. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.480 It was raining like it can rain, and you know, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.440 in the fall, early fall, and that field we went 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.200 out and the AstroTurf field was floating. It was like 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:29.760 floating on the top of a bathtub. 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.920 There was genuinely no spinning this anyway else. This was 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.480 not a situation where business staffers worked out of an 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.840 office and the team practiced at a local high school 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.599 or college while waiting for their new facility to open up. No, 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:47.560 this was legitimately an entire NFL team operating out of 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:49.360 an abandoned elementary school. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.440 It's an elementary school. It's you walk in and it's like, yeah, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.680 I went to this school like when I was thirteen. 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:56.840 That's what it was, was a school. 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.960 Mike Chappel is entering his fortieth year covering the Indianapolis Colts. 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.360 Inside you're thinking, so this is the NFL. Well, no, 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.200 not really. It's a precursor to the NFL until you 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:11.040 get your headquarters together. So but back then we didn't 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.120 worry about that because, again as a fan invasion, as 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.680 the media, you were just glad to be out to 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:18.640 that facility for the reason you were. 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.720 As Colts staffers figured out what classrooms everything belonged in, 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.480 they needed to hire some support staff. The team's business 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:31.640 operations like ticketing, marketing, sponsorships, public relations, et cetera. Were 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.000 largely left behind in Baltimore. The Colts football operations were intact, 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:37.720 but everything else was in disarray. 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.120 You're starting to fill the staff and the coaches. We'd 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.320 go over to the Irish pub down the street and 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:47.720 several of the hired secretaries from there at lunch. 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.320 Hower coaching bartenders was one solution to the team's staffing problem, 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.360 but the Colts would quickly find out that they had 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.240 a problem that required more than just a quick fix. 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.480 March twenty nine of eighty four, the Colts arrive in 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.960 Indy and I still remember thinking, wow, that's kind of late, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.600 you know, in the ticketing process to move, and I thought, wow, 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.319 that's going to be pretty tough for someone over there 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:15.959 in Indy. 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.560 That's Larry Hall, who in the spring of nineteen eighty 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.040 four was a young twenty somethingter ticketing guy for the 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.400 Cincinnati Bengals. Initially, the Colts figured the staff at the 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.240 Hoosier Dome could handle tickets for the nineteen eighty four season, 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.320 but about a month after settling into Indianapolis, the Colts 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.520 realized demand for their tickets was so high they need 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.160 to hire someone as soon as possible to begin managing 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.440 Indianapolis's intense interest in Colts tickets. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.200 Their safe Hamory shout to the Brown family. Mike Brown 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:44.520 calls me and hey, Larry, how. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:45.040 You doing good? 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.400 So you know the Colts moved from Baltimore, India. Yes, sir, 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.360 I do know that, And well they've called an asked 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.400 permission to talk to you about being their lid ticket 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.760 guy at the end of this long day, and it 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.520 went really well. I was very open and honest about 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.640 my experience and how I would do it if I 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.080 were doing the ticket process. And at the end of 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:03.520 the day by Brsees says, you're our guy. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:04.080 We want you. 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:05.000 When can you start? 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:06.400 And I said, well, I need to go home to talk 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:06.720 about coaches. 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:07.600 Call let's whatt tomorrow. 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:09.120 We want to know, we want to know, right, And 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.720 he was very anxious, and I later found out why 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.440 because they had put out in the newspaper on it. 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.120 I remember a midnight run everyone told me of the 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.720 newspaper had this famous application you could order, you know, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.800 up to ten tickets in a thirteen day window. Thirty 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:29.760 thousand applications for one hundred and forty thousand seats poured 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.440 in in a thirteen day window. This is no credit cards, 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.280 this is cashier's checks and money orders, no personal checks. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.560 So they shut down the post office box and returned 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:41.880 anything came in after that. But the building held sixty 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.640 twenty seven six zero one two seven. 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:44.960 That's it. 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.520 So he's got a little bit of a challenge here 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.800 with this this this ticketing demand which is off the charts, 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.000 and it's wonderful and it's great, and the enthusiasm for 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.000 the team, you know, was just at a height that 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:58.920 I'd never witnessed before. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.160 Larry Hall began working for the Colts in May, and 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.480 he had less than three months to not just figure 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.720 out who would get tickets, but how they would get them. 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.280 First things first, though, he had to find his office, 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.240 which would be in a classroom at Fall Creek Elementary. 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.560 I'm driving to the complex to go to work for 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.760 the first day. I park and I go in and 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.520 a young lady named Kristin Palmore was receptionist from the 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.880 south side of Ending. She was pretty sassy, and you know, 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.680 had took a high volume of calls everyone know about 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.160 tickets and people from Baltimore still threatening their say family 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.760 was terrible, right terrible, and she could give back pretty 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:35.960 well to whatever she got on the phone. And I 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:37.680 remember walking up and saying, well, I'm Larry Hall. I'm 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.800 here to run the ticket office. He said okay, and 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.040 there's a long pause, and I said, dum, is there 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.080 somebody in particular supposed to see She goes, no, I don't, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.440 but there's open classrooms if you want to find one 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:51.760 down the hallway. So I just sort of walked down 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:56.960 the hallway and no computer, no staff. I'm pretty sure 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:58.680 if I didn't bring a pad and a Penda rite 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.320 with there may not have been one. When you say 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.800 from scratch, I'm talking from scratch, all right. I remember 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.080 going into the classroom that I picked. I forget what 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.080 room number it was, but you know, the ceiling tile 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:10.920 was kind of had a few leaks and some of 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.320 the tiles were popped up. And my wife came over, 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.560 and we came from pretty humble beginnings, but she walked 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.960 into that room and went We left Cincinnati for this. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:22.399 With demand for tickets more than doubling the Hoosier Domes capacity, 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.760 Hall would have to find a solution. Folks in Indianapolis 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.560 were desperate to land tickets to watch their new team play, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.760 but not everyone would be able to get in the door. 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.280 The plan then became to hold a lottery to determine 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:35.680 who could get season tickets. 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.200 There was no Indiana lottery at that time. By the way, 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.920 mister say bobber Say Jim's father knew the governor of 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.440 Illinois they had a lottery. He convinced him to borrow 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.399 their lottery machine, put it on his private jet, strap 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.040 it down, bring it over right to Indy, and roll 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:52.760 that thing out. 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:57.240 Among those thirty thousand applications, if lottery number six was drawn, 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.919 every sixth person on the list would be able to 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.760 purchase season tickets. For Jeff Haggard and his family, who 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.320 were among the early winners of the ticket lottery, it 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.040 felt like they won the actual lottery. Haggard has been 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.840 a cult season ticket member ever since the team's debut 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:14.520 in Indianapolis in nineteen eighty four. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:16.959 It was just going to get really want you know 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.400 ticket back then, because it was all over the news. 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.560 I mean, we actually made it an evening of it. 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.399 We ceramonsly drove the envelopes them in the mailbox and 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.160 put it in and you all gave it a wish 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.560 for reluctant so we could get it. And so when 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.600 we ben we got it was excitement. 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.359 As the week's bled off the calendar that summer, the 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.679 team's staff worked long hours with little sleep, trying to 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.560 get a mountain of tasks completed before the team kicked 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.800 off at the Hoosier Dome for their first preseason game 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:45.400 that August. 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:47.320 They could work twenty four hours a day for six 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.200 months and still not be where you wanted to be. Really, 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:52.520 I had a recurring nightmare that was I would wake 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.119 up like that I overslept for opener, you know, and 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.760 it's like a recurring nightmare, and I'd get to the 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:00.280 game and it was like half time. 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:02.760 One of the biggest challenges, as it would turn out, 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.400 would be just getting tickets in the hands of fans 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.560 who bought them. Because the Colts didn't know where they'd 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.760 be playing in nineteen eighty four until late March, and 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.440 because they completed their lottery just a few weeks later, 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.479 there was no guarantee tickets would be printed and in 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.560 the hands of the people that bought them. Before the 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.280 Colts preseason opener on August eleventh, nineteen eighty four against 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.840 the New York Giants, Hall begged the company that printed 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.840 the Colts tickets to speed up the process. They couldn't. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.400 We were really, really behind any normal process for any team, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.960 and did our best to accelerate everything, including asking a 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.760 company out of Arkansas that printed the tickets then to 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.040 expedite things, and they said, for a number of reasons, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.200 they really couldn't. We offered to pay more money. We said, hey, 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:48.000 can you put a third shift on, can do Saturdays? 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.680 We're kind of already doing that, you know, So it's 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:52.480 getting closer and close to the first game, and we're 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.840 really thinking ourselves, what's what's the plan B? Is there 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.200 a plan B if we can't physically get someone a ticket? 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.359 So we started literally thinking, is there a way? Do 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.280 you just have to at some point open the gates 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:04.119 and trust people. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.239 The Colts ultimately had to hand deliver some tickets just 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.879 before that first game at the Hoosier Dome to ensure 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.359 all sixty two hundred and thirty six fans could get 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.280 in the door to the seats they had purchased. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.199 I remember different people's personalities and how we all got along, 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.840 and you know, with that common cause and knowing that 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:27.560 this is such a abbreviation, i'll call it a short runway. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.240 You got to stick to landing. I would imagine I 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.879