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The One and Only!

John Constantine Unitas

The Unitas Years: 1956-1972.
Everyone agrees that the Baltimore Colts were a good team, and that Johnny Unitas was a great quarterback. To Baltimoreans, Unitas remains the greatest quarterback in the history of professional football. Most people, however, are surprised to learn just how good the Colts were during the Johnny Unitas years.

The Baltimore Colts record can be looked at in two separate phases or eras: The Rosenbloom years (1953-1971) vrs the Irsay years (1972-1983), or the Unitas years (1956-1972) vrs the non-Unitas years (1953-1955, 1973-1983). Actually, the Unitas years (1956-1972) and the Rosenbloom years (1953-1971) closely coincide, and except for Unitas' last year in 1972, he played 16 of his 17 years under Rosenbloom's ownership.

It doesn't take a sports historian to remember that the Rosenbloom years were head and shoulders better than the Irsay years, but I thought it would be interesting to actually work up the numbers and compare the two periods.

The Colts are one of only five NFL teams that show a winning percentage over the 31-year period from 1953 -1983. Cleveland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Dallas also shows a winning percentage over its lifetime, but did not join the NFL until the 1960 season and therefore does not figure into the above comparisons.

The era of the great Colt teams is narrower than their lifetime in Baltimore, however. The Unitas years of 1956-1972 show a dramatic contrast to the 1953-1983 era and and even greater contrast to the Irsay era.

Table 1 contrasts the Unitas years with those years when he did not play. Table 2 compares the Rosenbloom and Irsay years. During Unitas' tenure the Colts won 156 games (including eight playoff/championship games) for a .664 won-lost percentage. During the Rosenbloom years the Colts had a .632 won-lost percentag while under Irsay's leadership the Colts dropped to a pitiful .386 won-lost percentage.

While the contrast between the Rosenbloom era and the Irsay era is striking. the contrast between the Unitas years and the non-Unitas years is even more striking. Under Unitas the Colts averaged nine wins and four-plus losses a year and played in twelve playoff/championship games. During the non-Unitas years the figures are nearly reversed; the Colts averaging five wins and eight-plus losses a year and figured n only three playoff games (1975, 1976 and 1977). Under Unitas the Colts were a dominant team. How do they stack up against the rest of the league?

Table 3 summarizes the won-lost-percentage records of the top teams in the NFL during the seventeen years that Unitas played. table 4 lists the number of championships won and the number of championship games which the top teams played in. Baltimore noises out Cleveland as a rsult of playing in and winning more playoff/championship games than Cleveland. Green Bay leads the league with five championships followed by Baltimore's three. The New York Giants are tie with Green Bay in most games played in, but the Giants have a terrible playoff record losing five of six games.

During their entire tenure in Baltimore the Colts had the third winningest record in the NFL behind Cleveland and Los Angeles. And during the Unitas years the Colts led all NFL teams in number of wins and rank second only to Green Bay in number of championships during that period.

Despite this great winning heritage, the power structure of the NFL ruled against Baltimore as a worthy NFL city only agreeing after Art Modell overruled all of his peers by unilaterally declaring that he was moving his franchise to Baltimore.