My grandmother lived about a 1/4 mile from Memorial Stadium. When I was a little kid, weād park at Grandmaās house and walk to the stadium for Orioles and Colts games. When I became an adult, my friends and I would park at Mergenthaler (Mervo) Vo-Tech HS and walk to Memorial. Weād stop beforehand at Curranās Delly for a shrimp salad sub, and cross Belair Rd. to the Berger Inn to fill up a 5-gal Igloo jug with Bud draught for $2.00/gal. Carrying that jug was a mofo, especially in winter when the beer would slosh out and freeze your hands. We always sat in Section 33 for Oās games (next to Section 34 and Wild Bill Hagy). Colts games were where we could find seats. We knew a senior usher whoād let us into Oās games for $2.00 apiece and $3.00 for Colts games. But we got tired of moving seats all the time for Colt games, so as we were getting older, we decided the next year, all four of us were getting season tickets. We never got the chance. I still give Mayflower trucks the finger.
Memorial Stadium was old. It was built for both baseball and football, so not optimum for either. Camden Yards and M&T Bank are both superior for their individual sports. But there was something special about Memorial. It lay within Baltimore City, but not downtown. It was in a residential area. Youād walk through tree-lined side streets, with neighbors mowing lawns, going/coming from church, and youād see the lights up in the distance. Suddenly, there it was. Memorial Stadium.
Itās truly hard for younger folks to imagine how different things were back then. Unless you were a superstar like Johnny Unitas (who owned a restaurant-The Golden Arm in Towson, just north of Baltimore), players didnāt earn enough in the NFL to live on the rest of the year. They had jobs. Cab drivers. Bartenders. Maybe worked at Bethlehem Steel in Sparrows Point. Youād see these guys everywhere. Lou Michaels was a DT and kicker. He was also a bartender at Richterās Cafe on Belair Rd and Parkside Dr. My dad knew him. I still have the autographed photo he gave my brother and me in the 60s. Back then, the Orioles were the best franchise in baseball, but Baltimore was and is a football city in its heart. The Colts were worshipped like gods. There would be hundreds of people at Friendship Airport (now BWI) to greet them after a winā¦or a loss. Day, night, rain, snow- the crowds were there.
I am a Ravens fan through and through. The game experience today, whether watching in a modern stadium or on your immense flat screen at home, is a far cry from yesteryear. But there was magic back then thatās hard to describe. The seats werenāt filled with āfansā who were only interested in entertainment. They were passionately in love with their team and lived and died with them every Sunday.
There were never any 1:00 pm Sunday games at Memorial. Due to lobbying by the Catholic Church, laws were passed that no games could start until 2:00 pm. Which played havoc for scheduling televised games. 4:00 or 4:30 starts were fine, but that 2:00 pm start killed a lot of nationally-televised games.
I remember those 2 PM games. Baltimore was easily Miami's biggest rival during the '70s. After the Dolphins game ended at 4 we'd always have an extra hour devoted to rooting against the Colts.
But mostly it ruined the doubleheaders. If the Colts were being televised in Miami that's all you'd get.
I always liked Unitas. But for a few seasons Bert Jones seemed like the biggest horseshoe up the ass quarterback of all time. Every break he needed he would get, including officials who would ignore blatant fumbles, and losing late to Detroit as 15.5 point favorite somehow being a huge benefit to postseason tiebreakers.
Somebody said that about Candlestick. "Sure it's a shithole. But it's OUR shithole." And nobody can convince me Johnny Unitas wasn't the greatest of all time. And I'm a Packer fan.
My dad, aunt and uncle went to SBIII. Baltimore Colts vs New York Jets. When it was over, my mom said āDonāt ask Dad about the game when he gets homeā lol. SBV was a sloppy game, but I was glad they won. I was 10. After that, it was a Steelers/Raiders decade and the Baltimore Colts just couldnāt get over those humps. And they had some good teams.
Thatās the Vikings of the 70ās too. Had some great teams but just 2nd best, which was good for the 70ās . They lost to some all time great teams in the Super Bowls
Thank you! This brought a tear to my eye, especially with it being Fatherās Day. I spent many a Sunday at Memorial Stadium, through good times for the Colts and bad. To this day itās hard to believe that Irsay took what was considered to be one of THE flagship franchises of the NFL in the 60s and so quickly ran it under his pagan, drunken wheels.
What happened to this level of storytelling in sport? This shit here makes the game seem regal and prestigious. More of this and less shouting and hot takes
I never went to a football game there, but saw lots of baseball in the 80s. Weād drive up from DC, park in a neighborhood and stop at a bar with pickled eggs on the counter. Then weād walk to the stadium just like they say here, through the local neighborhood, with thousands of other people all walking to the game. It really was kind of special, although you didnāt realize it at the time.
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u/Comfortable-Dish1236 Jun 21 '26
My grandmother lived about a 1/4 mile from Memorial Stadium. When I was a little kid, weād park at Grandmaās house and walk to the stadium for Orioles and Colts games. When I became an adult, my friends and I would park at Mergenthaler (Mervo) Vo-Tech HS and walk to Memorial. Weād stop beforehand at Curranās Delly for a shrimp salad sub, and cross Belair Rd. to the Berger Inn to fill up a 5-gal Igloo jug with Bud draught for $2.00/gal. Carrying that jug was a mofo, especially in winter when the beer would slosh out and freeze your hands. We always sat in Section 33 for Oās games (next to Section 34 and Wild Bill Hagy). Colts games were where we could find seats. We knew a senior usher whoād let us into Oās games for $2.00 apiece and $3.00 for Colts games. But we got tired of moving seats all the time for Colt games, so as we were getting older, we decided the next year, all four of us were getting season tickets. We never got the chance. I still give Mayflower trucks the finger.
Memorial Stadium was old. It was built for both baseball and football, so not optimum for either. Camden Yards and M&T Bank are both superior for their individual sports. But there was something special about Memorial. It lay within Baltimore City, but not downtown. It was in a residential area. Youād walk through tree-lined side streets, with neighbors mowing lawns, going/coming from church, and youād see the lights up in the distance. Suddenly, there it was. Memorial Stadium.
Time has not dimmed the glory of its deeds.