Derek Schultz: Even with his flaws, Jim Irsay was everything a sports fan could want in an owner

On Sunday afternoon, inside a venue that was hosting the largest single-day sporting event in the world, Jim Irsay’s face was emblazoned upon the videoboards as 350,000 fans stood silent at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That night, thousands more did the same at Gainbridge Fieldhouse before the Indiana Pacers’ game with the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

On the surface, the owner of a football team has little to do with an auto race or basketball game. But the fact that both venues paused massive events to take the time to appreciate and pay homage to Jim Irsay tells you everything about his impact and place as a central figure in Indianapolis sports—an omnipresence that sadly has come to an end with his passing at age 65 last week.

I am not the person to pen a full-scale, all-encompassing remembrance of Irsay’s life. I wasn’t among the few in his inner circle who had a front row seat to his personal triumphs and tragedies, nor did I even know him as intimately as many longtime media members who covered the Colts. Frankly, from the incredible acts of his deeply kind and empathetic heart to the dark depths of his addiction, 10,000 words could not do Irsay’s personal story justice, much less a little over 1,000 words in this sports column.

What instead can be stated here is how much Jim Irsay the sports owner meant to this city.

While it would be unfair to give sole credit to any single person for the Indianapolis we enjoy today, you couldn’t make a proper list of the most influential figures—sports or otherwise—in city history without putting Irsay’s name on it.

Just think about where Indianapolis was before he hopped out of the Mayflower vans with his father, Bob, in 1984, what the city has seen since, and what it is now.

So much of this city’s national and international reputation is staked on sports, and Irsay’s Colts have been the centerpiece of the strategy and the entity that even made it possible for Dick Lugar, Bill Hudnut and the Statehouse and sports leaders in this city who followed to execute and maintain that innovative vision for Indianapolis.

The Hoosier Dome might not have been built specifically for the Colts, but the Colts’ success under Irsay is what helped build Lucas Oil Stadium. Indianapolis became a football town on Irsay’s watch, but far more important, with the Colts’ increased prominence nationally, the Amateur Sports Capital of the World became a major sports destination city, as well.

Jim Irsay’s sports legacy, much like that of his life, is impossible to paint with a broad stroke. His Colts teams often mirrored his own life. They could be enigmatic or downright volatile, veering wildly off course at times and earning derision and causing embarrassment. At other points, they were envied and respected, set the standard for NFL team success, and garnered praise and reverence.

While we might not have always been inside the roller-coaster car with Irsay, here in Indianapolis we often felt the loops, dips and spins. Even if you’re queasy from it all, you have to admit it was a hell of a ride after the move from Baltimore, accounting for 85% of Irsay’s adult life and the entirety of Indianapolis’ pro football history.

Under Irsay, there were sports highs never before seen in this town, as the Colts set a new bar for the NFL’s all-time-winningest decade (115 wins from 2000-2009), including the city’s first major professional sports championship during the 2006-2007 season. Whether it was his sole decision or not, Irsay oversaw the hiring of a Hall of Fame executive in Bill Polian, a Hall of Fame coach in Tony Dungy, and the drafting of a half-dozen Hall of Fame or Hall of Fame-caliber stars led by Peyton Manning.

In that era, the Colts were a model of consistency and stability, winning at least 10 games and making the playoffs in nine straight seasons from 2002-2010. Indianapolis was able to temporarily extend the magic in the post-Manning years, immediately turning in three straight playoff seasons after his release in early 2012, as Irsay bridged the previous era to their next one on the back of new franchise quarterback Andrew Luck.

For all those highs, however, there were plenty of lows. Irsay’s tenure in Indianapolis was bookended by failure as the Colts were a league punchline during their first 10 seasons of futility in Indy, which was at least partially due to Irsay’s nepotism-fueled promotion by his dad to general manager at the age of 24. The team earned just one playoff victory over Irsay’s largely mediocre final decade at the helm. His personal struggles, especially his lifelong battle with addiction, occasionally bled into the sports wire, notably with his high-profile OWI arrest in 2014.

Through the ups and downs, Irsay remained wholly committed to several loves: his team’s city, its fans, his players and winning games. Considering that Irsay’s time as a major American professional sports team owner coincided with that of Bob Nutting, Donald Sterling and Stan Kroenke, you couldn’t say all his peers aligned in those beliefs. Irsay cared deeply about putting a winner on the field, first and foremost, and it showed through his public declarations on social media or even awkward, impromptu postgame videos in front of airplane propellers.

For the fans, his passing was met with a flood of stories from those lucky enough to be handed a $100 bill by the team owner at a tailgate or win one of his hotly contested trivia question tweets. When it came to his players, they routinely returned from all over the country for team celebrations and events. Irsay even gave the Hall of Fame presentation speeches for Edgerrin James, Dwight Freeney and Marvin Harrison. For the biggest honor of their professional lives, those players chose their boss—just ruminate on that thought for a minute.

Across Indianapolis, Irsay’s philanthropy was well-documented, too, from Riley Hospital for Children to the Indianapolis Zoo. His team-led Kicking the Stigma campaign will benefit generations to come. Besides charitable causes, he paid for funerals and even drug rehabilitation for others—acts that were rarely publicized.

Irsay was part football savant and part rodeo clown, but those eccentricities are what endeared him to so many. He might have been a poor GM and made one of the worst interim-coaching hires in league history, but he was respected enough to have a seat among the most notable and powerful NFL owners. He might have accumulated some of his wealth thanks to a sweetheart stadium deal that was built largely with central Indiana taxpayer dollars, but he shared that wealth with those less fortunate in this city.

You could say many things about Jim Irsay, but one thing you couldn’t say was that he didn’t care.

He cared deeply—about his team, about his players, about the fans and about this city.

And, for that, he deserves to be appreciated and remembered fondly.•

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From Peyton Manning’s peak with the Colts to the Pacers’ most recent roster makeover, Schultz has talked about it all as a sports personality in Indianapolis for more than 15 years. Besides his written work with IBJ, he’s active in podcasting and show hosting. You can follow him on X @Schultz975.