Tommy John, 1943-2026

Before the surgery, for 31 years, there was the man. After the surgery debuted, for 52 years, there was the man. And, as rough as the condition that requires the surgery, and the return from it, can be, you'd much rather have the surgery named for Tommy John than the disease named for an earlier Yankee star, Lou Gehrig.

Thomas Edward John Jr. was born on May 22, 1943 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He starred in baseball and basketball at that city's Gerstmeyer High School, and was the valedictorian of its Class of 1961. But he had a stutter, so the school wouldn't let him give the valedictory speech.

In 1971, Gerstmeyer was consolidated with Garfield High School, which produced basketball stars Clyde Lovellette and Terry Dischinger. The combined school, Terre Haute North Vigo High School, has produced Major League Baseball players Brian Dorsett and Josh Phegley, and football stars Anthony Thompson and Steve Weatherford.

John was signed out of high school by the Cleveland Indians. He made his major league debut on September 6, 1963, wearing Number 37, pitching the 7th inning and allowing an unearned run on 2 hits, in a 7-2 loss to the Washington Senators at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.

The Indians split him between starting and relieving the rest of 1963, and all of 1964. On January 20, 1965, the Indians made an epic mistake. It was the 2nd time they had done so with a trade involving slugging right fielder Rocky Colavito. They had traded Colavito, then 26 years old, to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn, and it worked out considerably better for the Tigers. Now, Colavito was 31, and struggling with injuries, was not the same player, and ended up playing his last major league game at 35..

It was a 3-way trade. The Indians got Colavito and Cam Carreon, basically a throw-in. The Kansas City Athletics got Jim Landis, Mike Hershberger and Fred Talbot, none of whom did much for them. And the Chicago White Sox got Tommy John, Tommie Agee and John Romano.

Romano, a catcher, gave the White Sox 2 good seasons before injuries cut his career short. Agee became the American League Rookie of the Year in 1966, and also hit well in 1967, before the White Sox made the mistake of trading him to the Mets.

But this trade still worked out well for the White Sox, as they put John into the starting rotation. Switching to the Number 25 that he wore for the rest of his career, he won 14 games in both 1965 and '66. In '66, he led the AL with 5 shutouts. In 1967, he went 10-13, but had a 2.47 ERA, and again led the AL in shutouts, with 6. The White Sox were in the AL Pennant race until the final weekend.

After the 1971 season, they traded John and utility infielder Steve Huntz to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dick Allen. This trade worked out very well for both teams. Allen led the AL in home runs in 1972, winning the AL Most Valuable Player award, and it's been suggested that the attendance he brought in saved the South Siders from being moved.

John went 11-5 for the Dodgers in 1972, 16-7 for a National League-leading .696 winning percentage in 1973, and was 13-3 for a League-leading .813 percentage in 1974, helping the Dodgers win the Pennant, before an injury cut his season short on July 17.

Would the Dodgers have won the 1974 World Series, against the Oakland Athletics, if John had been available? He likely would have started Game 3 instead of Al Downing, which the Dodgers lost, 3-2. (All 5 games, including Game 2, which the Dodgers won, ended with a 3-2 score.) Even if he had outpitched Catfish Hunter that day, he still would have had to start Game 6 and win again.

*

On September 25, 1974, John underwent surgery on his left elbow, his pitching elbow. The procedure was performed at Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, by Dr. Frank Jobe. This procedure is one where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's body, or with one from a deceased donor. It became known as "Tommy John Surgery" or "TJS."

Dr. Frank Jobe

Jobe gave the operation 100-1 odds of being successful, but John had it anyway, as his other option was to start working at a friend's car dealership back in Terre Haute.

Traditionally, a pitcher misses an entire season in rehabilitation from the surgery. Some come back from it well, some don't. Some end up needing a 2nd TJS. The fact that John, the 1st pitcher to undergo the procedure, came back so well from it gave other pitchers hope.

A year and a half later, on April 16, 1976, John returned to the mound. He didn’t pitch well, losing to the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. But he pitched without pain. Switching from his former blazing fastball and hard curveball to a sinker, in 22 games, all starts, he went 10-10 with a 3.09 ERA.

In 1977, he went 20-7, his 1st 20-win season, and had a 2.78 ERA. The Dodgers won the Pennant, and he started Game 3 of the World Series, but lost it to the Yankees and Mike Torrez. In 1978, he went 17-10 with a 3.30 ERA. The Dodgers won the Pennant again, and he started and won Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees. He also started Game 4, and pitched well, but was not involved in the decision, as the Yankees won in 10 innings.

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner must have liked what he saw: His contract with the Dodgers having run out, on November 21, 1978, the Yankees signed John to a 3-year contract worth $1.4 million. He was never better than when he was a 36- and a 37-year-old Yankee: He went 21-9 with a 2.96 ERA in 1979, and 22-9, including winning his 1st 7 decisions, and a 3.43 ERA in 1980. That year, he finished 2nd int he AL Cy Young Award voting to Steve Stone, who won 25 games for the Baltimore Orioles.

In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he went 9-8, 2.63. The Yankees won the Pennant, and he pitched 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball against the Dodgers to win Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees were 2 wins away from getting him his World Series ring.

But the Dodgers won the next 3 games. After 4 innings of Game 6, and the score 1-1, Yankee manager Bob Lemon screwed up, sending Bobby Murcer, another man who was closer than ever to a ring than at any time in a long career, up to pinch-hit for John. He flew out. Lemon then sent George Frazier in to relieve for John, and he allowed 3 runs in the 5th. The Yankees lost, 9-2, and John had now been in 3 World Series, all of them Yankees vs. Dodgers, and on the losing side of all 3.

Steinbrenner began to break up the dynasty. This included a trade on August 31, 1982: He sent John to the California Angels for pitcher Dennis Rasmussen. He did well for the Yankees, but they got rid of him too soon, so this wasn't a bad trade for them.

Like Steinbrenner, Gene Autry, the legendary entertainer known as "The Singing Cowboy" and the owner of the Angels, was willing to spend big money if he thought it would get him big results. The 1982 Angels' pitching staff included such veteran stars as John, Luis Tiant, Stan Bahnsen (all former Yankees), Bruce Kison, Steve Renko, Andy Hassler, Ken Forsch, Dave Goltz and John Curtis. Their veteran hitters included former Yankee Reggie Jackson, perennial AL batting Champion Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, Don Baylor (all former AL MVPs), Bob Boone (Aaron' father), Rick Burleson, Doug DeCinces, Juan Beníquez and Brian Downing.

It almost worked: The Angels won the AL Western Division title, and led the AL Championship Series 2 games to none. But the Milwaukee Brewers won the next 3 games to take the Pennant.

John never came so close to a Pennant again. The Angels released him in midseason in 1985, and he signed with the Oakland Athletics. They released him after the season. He was 42 years old, and that year off was 10 years back. It looked like he was done.

But injuries to their starting pitchers led the Yankees to bring John back on May 2, 1986. He made 13 appearances, including 10 starts, and went 5-3 with a 2.93 ERA. In 1987, he made 33 starts, and went 13-6, although his ERA rose to 4.03. In 1988, he turned 45, and was the oldest player in baseball, though that elbow ligament was only 14 years old. He 35 appearances, including 32 starts, and went 9-8 with a 4.49 ERA.

In 1989, he made 10 appearances, all starts, and went 2-7 with a 5.80 ERA. On May 30, 5 days after his last appearance, and 8 days after his 46th birthday, the Yankees released Tommy John.

*

When he began his career, John F. Kennedy was President, and had just spoken at the two-year-old Berlin Wall. There were 20 teams in Major League Baseball, 9 of them playing in ballparks that opened in 1912 or earlier, and none of them playing on artificial turf or under a dome. Stan Musial was still playing, and Casey Stengel was still managing. Tom Seaver was in college, Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt were in high school, and Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were about to be born.

When he ended his career, George H.W. Bush was President, and the Berlin Wall was 5 months away from coming down. There were 26 teams in Major League Baseball, 3 of them playing in ballparks that opened in 1912 or earlier, 10 of them playing on artificial turf, and 4 of them playing under a dome. Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa, Larry Walker and Jim Abbott were rookies. Derek Jeter was in high school, David Ortiz was in junior high; and Giancarlo Stanton, George Springer and Freddie Freeman were born.

Does Tommy John belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame? He won 288 games, and lost 231, for a winning percentage of .555. Indeed, he won more games after his surgery, 164, than he did before it, 124. Or, as John himself has put it, he won just 1 fewer game after his surgery than Sandy Koufax did in his entire injury-shortened career. (Given the nature of his condition, John's surgery, had it been available in Koufax's time, would have done him no good.) He also made more All-Star Games after, 3, than before, 1. His career ERA was 3.34, his ERA+ was 111, he pitched 46 shutouts, he had 2,245 strikeouts, and his WHIP was 1.283.

Here is a list of all the pitchers who match or surpass him in wins, winning percentage, shutouts and strikeouts, in chronological order: Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Eddie Plank, Walter Johnson, Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver and Roger Clemens. That's it, that's the list: 8 guys. And only 4 of them pitched all or most of their careers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era: Spahn, Carlton, Seaver and Clemens.

Baseball-Reference.com, a website that makes writing this blog far easier, has a Hall of Fame Monitor, on which a "Likely HOFer" is at 100, John is at 112, suggesting that he should be in. It also has a Hall of Fame Standards, on which the "Average HOFer" is at 50; John is at 44, suggesting that he falls short.

It also has Similarity Scores, usually comparing players of similar positions. John's Top 10 most statistically similar pitchers are Jim Kaat, Robin Roberts, Bert Blyleven, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Tom Glavine, Burleigh Grimes, Tony Mullane, Don Sutton and Eppa Rixey. Mullane is the only one of these who is not in the Hall of Fame.

While he was eligible for election by the Baseball Writers Assocation of America, which votes on recently retired players, from 1995 to 2009, T.J. never received as much as 32 percent of the vote. He has been eligible for the Veterans Committee's Modern Era Subcommittee in 2020, and its Classic Era Subcommittee in 2025, but fell short both times.

In my opinion, he should be in the Hall of Fame, not just for the historical significance of the surgery that bears his name and has saved many other careers after his, but on merit. Essentially, he had two good careers that added up to one great career.

*

In 2012, Lindsey Berra, Yogi's granddaughter, who works for ESPN, pointed out that 1 out of every 7 pitchers then in the major leagues had undergone Tommy John surgery at some point in their careers.

Like basketball star Bill Walton, John overcame his stutter and became a broadcaster in his sport, calling games for the Minnesota Twins from 1994 to 1996, the International League's Charlotte Knights in 1997, and the Yankees in 1998.

That year, he participated in the Yankees' Old-Timers Day festivities at Yankee Stadium. I was at that game, as they celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the 1977 and 1978 World Series, inviting several former Yankees and former Dodgers. In the Old-Timers Game between the former Yankees and the former Dodgers, John pitched for the Dodgers, and gave up a walkoff home run to Willie Randolph. At the age of 55, he still wasn't ending up on the winning side of Yankee-Dodger festivities.

He was hired as the pitching coach at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. In the 2002 and 2003 seasons, he coached in the Montreal Expos' organization. In 2004 and 2005, he returned to the Pinstripe organization, as the manager of the Class A Staten Island Yankees. He managed the Connecticut-based Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League from the start of the 2007 season to mid-2009, resigning to go into business, including advertising a joint cream. He had no connection to the Tommy John underwear company.

Tommy John and Mariano Rivera,

a few Old-Timers Days ago

John married twice, and had 4 children, all of them with names beginning with T, and 2 of them touched by tragedy. In 1981, his 2-year-old son Travis fell nearly 40 feet from a 3rd-story window of the family's rented house in New Jersey, and lapsed into a coma for nearly 3 weeks. He underwent successful treatment, and returned home to walk and play normally. Steinbrenner invited him to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 2 of the 1981 World Series.

Taylor John wasn't son lucky: He dealt with depression, and in 2010, he took his prescription drugs in the wrong combination, and died from an overdose. He was 28 years old. "He was the greatest kid in the world, but he would get into these panic spells and deep abysses," his father said. "He was wired different than the rest of us."

Daughter Tamara went to Duke University, where she met her husband, Patrick Mannelly, who went on to play for the Chicago Bears. Son Tommy John III pitched for his father at Furman, named All-Southern Conference. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that one of Tommy John's children went into medicine: Tommy III became a chiropractor, and wrote Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent's Survival Guide, which discusses the injury risk associated with young athletes specializing in one specific sport and suggests ways to prevent youth from ever having to undergo major sports-related surgery, such as Tommy John surgery.

Tommy John and his 3rd wife, Cheryl Zeldin, settled in Bradenton, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area. He fell victim to bladder cancer, and died yesterday, on August 15, 2026, at the age of 83.

In 1987, in his 2nd tenure with the Bronx Bombers, he was one of the people interviewed for the documentary New York Yankees: The Movie. So were Yankee legends Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford. Clips of interviews of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the then-still-living Joe DiMaggio and the still-living-now Reggie Jackson were included.

With John's death, there are only 8 survivors among the interviewees: Bobby Richardson, and John's former teammates Roy White, Lou Piniella, Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Dave Righetti, Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly.

November 8, 1975: The Rudy Ruettiger Game

The real thing, not Sean Astin

November 8, 1975, 50 years ago: Notre Dame beats Georgia Tech, 24-3 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. By the Fighting Irish's standards, it was an unremarkable game in an unremarkable season, going 8-3 with no invitation to a bowl game, and with the 2 guys who would become their biggest stars, quarterback Joe Montana and linebacker Bob Golic, both being freshmen and backups.

But in this last home game for several seniors, head coach Dan Devine, who took over this season from the retiring Ara Parseghian, decided -- on his own, not persuaded to do so like the movie said -- to have 5-foot-6-inch, 165-pound defensive end Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger, who hadn't played a down in 4 years and wouldn't get another chance, dress in his Number 45 uniform for the game.

Devine sends Ruettiger in for Notre Dame's final defensive series, and he is in for 3 plays: A kickoff, an incomplete pass by Tech quarterback Rudy Allen (whose name actually was Rudolph), and a sack of Allen by Ruettiger.

And thus did the story of the 1993 film Rudy, starring Sean Astin, end. At least they got that part right. It's not the most ridiculous movie ever made about Notre Dame football, but it is about the school's most ridiculous player.

What happened to Rudy after his sack? He set up a successful maintenance company, and also sold real estate. In 1986, he moved back to South Bend, and decided to sell his story to be made into a film. He had a cameo as a fan, sitting behind Ned Beatty, who was playing his father. He said the movie was 92 percent true.

After the movie, he became a motivational speaker, and ran Rudy Beverage, Inc. In 2011, he was charged with securities fraud in connection with that company. He settled, and paid $383,000 in fines. In 2017, this famous former member of the football team at America's best-known Catholic university converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a.k.a. the Mormons.

Maybe Meat Loaf should have played middle-aged Rudy.

As of November 8, 2025, he is still alive. 

July 27, 1964: The Galimore-Farrington Crash

July 27, 1964, 60 years ago: A car crash in Rensselaer, Indiana, near the Chicago Bears' training camp, kills 2 of their players: Running back Willie Galimore and tight end Bo Farrington. It had been 7 months since they had helped the Bears win the NFL Championship. Now, a new season would be draped in tragedy.

Both players were black, and had gone to "historically black" colleges. Willie Lee Galimore was born on March 30, 1935 in St. Augustine, Florida. He went to Florida A&M, playing for head coach Jake Gaither, a man who said of players, "I like 'em ag-ile, mob-ile and host-ile." He saw a lot of progress in his lifetime, but it came at a price: In the 1980s, Bobby Bowden built an integrated power at Florida State, which, like A&M, is in Tallahassee. Before he died in 1994, Gaither said, "Today, if they're agile, mobile and hostile, they go to Florida State."

Galimore was drafted by the Bears in the 5th round of the 1956 NFL Draft. He's been called "probably the last great find before NFL scouting became sophisticated." Doug Atkins, the great Bear defensive end who had to face him in practice, and Chuck Bednarik, the legendary Philadelphia Eagles linebacker, both called him one of the best runners they ever faced.

It was said that he could run from side to side as fast as most men could run in a straight line. His running style has been compared to that of later stars Billy Sims, a Heisman Trophy winner whose pro career was cut short by injury, and Terrell Davis, a Hall-of-Famer.

John R. Farrington was born on January 18, 1936, outside Houston in Missouri City, Texas. I can't find a reference to what the R stands for, or how he got the nickname Bo. He played at Prairie View A&M, in the Houston area. The Bears drafted him in the 16th round in 1960. By 1961, he was a starter, catching a 98-yard touchdown pass from Bill Wade that season. In 4 seasons, he had played 45 games, starting 28 of them, catching 55 passes for 881 yards and 7 touchdowns.

In the 1963 NFL Championship Game, on a frozen surface at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the New York Giants' vaunted defense held Galimore to only 12 yards on 7 rushes, and Farrington caught no passes. But their own defense was even stronger, and the Bears won, 14-10. It was the franchise's only title between the seasons of 1946 and 1985.

The St. Augustine movement, a wing of the Civil Rights Movement, brought Galimore back to his Florida hometown, and he became the 1st black person to register as a guest at the previously all-white Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge. His activism there is celebrated with a historical marker outside the house where he grew up, a community center with his name on it, and a mural painted by schoolchildren.

Then he went to Bears training camp, at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, 85 miles southeast of Chicago. On July 27, 1964, he gave Farrington a ride back to their hotel in his Volkswagen. He was unable to negotiate a curve, and flipped over, killing both of them. Galimore was 29 years old, Farrington 28.

Having lost Galimore after the 1964 Draft, the Bears had trouble replacing him for that season. So, in the 1965 Draft, they chose Gale Sayers of Kansas. As great (if brief, due to injuries) a career as Sayers had, the Bears would not have drafted him if Galimore had been alive and well.

Farrington wore Number 84, and that number is still available for Chicago Bear players. But the Bears did retire Galimore's Number 28.

Ron Galimore, Willie's son, was named the 1st black member of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. Unfortunately, that was in 1980, when the U.S. boycotted the Games in Moscow. He served as Chief Operating Officer of USA Gymnastics from 2011 to 2018.

April 4, 1924: Gil Hodges Is Born

April 4, 1924, 100 years ago: Gilbert Ray Hodge is born in Princeton, Indiana. By the 1930 Census, the family name had been changed to "Hodges."

 

Gil served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. He was an 8-time All-Star. He won the Gold Glove at 1st base the 1st 3 times it was awarded. He helped the Dodgers win the World Series in Brooklyn in 1955 and in Los Angeles in 1959. His 370 home runs don't sound like much now, but at the time of his retirement, they ranked 10th all-time. He peaked at 42 in 1954, including 4 in 1 game, and by 1960, was still considered enough of a slugger to be invited to appear on the game show Home Run Derby.

In 1963, he was named the manager of the Washington Senators. In 1968, he was named manager of the New York Mets. In 1969, he led the Mets to win the World Series. He died of a heart attack at the end of Spring Training in 1972, just short of his 48th birthday. He was the 1st of the Brooklyn Boys of Summer to die. (Of the players that Roger Kahn covered in the book, only Carl Erskine is still alive.)

 

The Dodgers and Mets have both retired Gil’s Number 14, and, long after his death, he was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On April 4, 1978, what would have been Hodges' 54th birthday, the Marine Parkway Bridge, which connected the neighborhoods of Marine Park in Brooklyn to Rockaway, Queens was renamed the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge. Part of Bedford Avenue, though in Midwood, not the part that borders the site of Ebbets Field, is named Gil Hodges Way.

January 19, 1974: Notre Dame Ends UCLA's 88-Game Winning Streak

January 19, 1974, 50 years ago: UCLA loses a basketball game. This is a big deal: It hadn't happened in 3 years.

The basketball team at the University of California at Los Angeles had been coached by John Wooden since 1949. In 1962, he got them into the Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament -- what we would now call the Final Four -- for the 1st time. In 1964, he guided them to an undefeated season and the National Championship. He won another in 1965. He won another in 1967, undefeated. He won another in 1968. He won another in 1969. In those last 3 seasons, led by Lew Alcindor, later to change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the UCLA Bruins went 88-2.

Losing the future Kareem didn't stop UCLA: They won another National Championship in 1970. On January 23, 1971, they were 14-0, and traveled to South Bend, Indiana to play the University of Notre Dame. They lost, 89-82. This was a surprise, but not a shock: Notre Dame, although (then as now) far better known for football, was then ranked Number 9 in the country, and had the home-court advantage at the Athletic & Convocation Center.

Wooden got the Bruins to shake it off, and they won another National Championship. In 1972, with a new star center, sophomore Bill Walton from San Diego, they went undefeated and won another National Championship. In 1973, they went undefeated and won another National Championship. A joke went around that "UCLA" stood for "U Can't Lose to Anybody."

On January 19, 1974, they were 13-0, having an 88-game winning streak, the longest in college basketball history, when, again, they traveled to play Notre Dame away. Coached by Richard "Digger" Phelps, and led by a freshman from Washington, D.C. named Adrian Dantley, the Fighting Irish were 9-0, and ranked Number 2. Unlike UCLA's 1968 loss to the University of Houston at a packed Astrodome, this game was not billed beforehand as a "Game of the Century."

Had it been, it would have lived up to the hype. UCLA led by 11 points with 4 minutes to play. But Notre Dame went on a tear, and, with 6 seconds to go, took their 1st lead of the game, 71-70. One last-gasp effort by Walton missed, and the streak was over.

In the event that you should ever meet Bill Walton, never, ever mention this game to him. In his 1993 memoir Nothing But Net, he said it still bothered him. He has complained about it many times since. (UPDATE: You no longer have to worry about that: Walton died on May 27, 2024.)

One week later, on January 26, there was a rematch at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, and UCLA got its revenge, 94-75. Notre Dame finished the season 26-3, losing to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament's round of 16.

UCLA would get to the Semifinal, then lose to a North Carolina State team led by David Thompson. N.C. State then beat Marquette for the title. Without the graduating Walton, Wooden led UCLA to 1 last National Championship in 1975, and retired, winning 10 in 12 years. No other school has won that many. UCLA has since won an 11th title, in 1995.

Renamed the Joyce Center in 1987, in honor of school administrator Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, Notre Dame's basketball arena is a house of upsets. In addition to the 2 noteworthy wins over UCLA, Notre Dame also upset the basketball team then ranked Number 1 in the nation in 1977 (the University of San Francisco), 1980 (DePaul), 1987 (North Carolina), 1991 (UCLA again), 2012 (Syracuse), and 2016 (North Carolina again).

No men's basketball team has seriously approached UCLA's 88-game winning streak. UNLV, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, has the longest streak since, 45, in 1990 and '91, including the 1990 NCAA Final over Duke, who then ended the streak in the 1991 NCAA Semifinal.

But the women's team at the University of Connecticut now has 2 longer winning streaks: 90 straight from 2008 to 2011, and 111 straight from 2016 to 2018. 

Bob Knight, 1940-2023

Bobby Knight was like a box of chocolates. You never knew what you were going to get. You could get something very sweet. You could also get something messy, and nuts. A teacher and bully. A hero one minute, and a villain the next.

NOTE: This is adapted from a post I wrote for his 75th birthday.

Robert Montgomery Knight was born on October 25, 1940 in Massillon, Ohio. Growing up outside Columbus, where the St. Louis Cardinals had a Triple-A farm team, he became a tremendous baseball fan, especially of the Cardinals, a fandom he maintained for the rest of his life, despite being closer to the Cincinnati Reds and the team then known as the Cleveland Indians.

But basketball would be his sport. He was the 6th man on the Ohio State University team that won the 1960 National Championship, coached by Fred Taylor, and led by 2 men who would be named to the NBA's 50 and 75 Greatest Players for their anniversary teams, Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek. Like Vince Lombardi and Bill Parcells, he was an assistant coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Unlike them, Bob Knight became head coach at "Army."

(He always seemed to be listed as "Bobby Knight" until well into his Indiana tenure, but he seems to always be listed as "Bob Knight" once he got older. As you can see, he signed autographs "Bob Knight.")

In 1971, he moved on to Indiana University, and led them to 11 Big Ten Conference Championships, 5 NCAA Final Fours, and 3 National Championships: In 1976 (still the last undefeated season in men's college basketball history), 1981 and 1987. Among his players were Kent Benson, Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Hall-of-Famer Isiah Thomas and Steve Alford, now the head coach at the University of Nevada, having won 657 games as a collegiate head coach.

He also coached the U.S. team to the Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. This may have been the best basketball team ever assembled to that point, including Alford, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, and North Carolina stars Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins. (As I said: The best ever assembled to that point.)

But controversy followed him, ranging from assaulting a police officer at a preseason tournament in Puerto Rico, to sexist comments, to profanity-laden press conferences, to the infamous chair toss to protest the officiating in a 1985 loss to in-State arch-rival Purdue University, to assaulting his own players, including his own son, Pat Knight. IU finally had no choice but to fire him in 2000, but he resurfaced at Texas Tech, and brought them more NCAA Tournament success than they'd ever had before.

Bob married Nancy Falk in 1963, and had 2 sons, Tim and Pat, before divorcing in 1985. In 1988, Bob married Karen Edgar, a former high school basketball coach in Oklahoma. Pat Knight served as his assistant at Indiana in that last season, 1999-2000, and at Texas Tech from 2001 to 2008. He succeeded his father as their head coach, until 2011. He then served as head coach at Lamar University for 3 years. Since 2014, Pat has been a scout for the NBA's Indiana Pacers.

With 902 wins, Bob became the winningest coach in men's college basketball history, although he has been surpassed by his former assistant at West Point, Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski. And not once in 41 seasons of head coaching (1965-71 with Army, 1971-2000 with Indiana, 2001-08 with Texas Tech) was he ever accused of breaking NCAA or conference rules. And his players graduated.

And, like Joe Paterno, who left under a more horrible controversy than anything that's been thrown at Knight -- or Knight's friend from Ohio State, football coach Woody Hayes -- Knight was a heavy donor to his schools' libraries. Top that, Rick Pitino and John Calipari.

He became a college basketball pundit on ESPN, leaving in 2015, due to declining health. In 2020, just before the COVID shutdown, and 20 years after he was fired, peace was made, and IU welcomed him back to Assembly Hall in Bloomington. Visibly ill, and visibly moved, he got a standing ovation.

Bob Knight died today, November 1, 2023, a week after his 83rd birthday. As the man in the red sweater himself -- adopting those after ditching his former plaid jackets -- said, "When my time on Earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside-down, so my critics can kiss my ass."

How to Be a New York Football Fan In Indianapolis -- 2021 Edition

This coming Thursday night, the New York Jets play a prime-time game, away to the Indianapolis Colts.

The Jets played the Colts, formerly of Baltimore, both home and away as AFC Eastern Division opponents every season from 1970 to 2001. Now, the Colts play in the AFC North, but this game counts the same.

Both New York NFL teams are inextricably linked with the Colts. It's an NFL myth that the 2 most important games in the League's history involved the Baltimore Colts vs. New York: The 1958 NFL Championship Game, against the Giants at the original Yankee Stadium (a.k.a. "The Greatest Game Ever Played"); and Super Bowl III, capping the 1968 season, between the NFL Champion Colts and the AFL Champion Jets at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

(If there has been an NFL game more important than those 2, it was likely also a Giants game, the 1925 game against the Chicago Bears and their rookie sensation Red Grange, which packed the Polo Grounds and saved the Giant franchise at the least, the NFL as a whole at the most.)

Of course, none of that has anything to do with Indianapolis. But then, neither should the Colts, even though they've now been there almost as long as they were in Baltimore: This is their 32nd season in Indianapolis, while they played only 31 seasons in Baltimore (1953 to 1983, unless you count the failed Baltimore Colt franchise of 1947 to 1950).

Before You Go. Lucas Oil Stadium has a retractable roof. Given that this is November, the roof will almost certainly be closed. Even before you go in, the weather won't be all that bad: The website of the Indianapolis Star is predicting high 40s for Thursday afternoon, and low 30s for the evening. You will need a Winter jacket. But they are not predicting either rain or snow for any day in this coming week.

Indiana used to be 1 of 2 States, Arizona being the other, where Daylight Savings Time was an issue; however, since 2006 -- 4 years after a West Wing episode lampooned this -- the State has used it throughout. There will be no need to adjust your timepieces.

Tickets. The stadium seats 62,421, one of the lower capacities in the NFL, although 2,000 more than the team's previous homes, Baltimore's Memorial Stadium and the Hoosier Dome. The Colts averaged 61,233 fans per home game, about 94 percent of capacity, in 2019, the last pre-COVID season. You might be able to get get tickets without going to StubHub or the NFL Ticket Exchange.

There are 6 levels in the stadium. In both the 100 Level, tickets are $275 in midfield and $100 in the end zone. Forget the 200, 300 and 400 Levels, as those are prohibitively expensive Club Level seats. In the 500 Level, they're $115 in midfield, and there's no end zone seating. And in the 600 Level, they're $74 in midfield, and $49 in the end zone.

Getting There. Keep in mind, this is Christmas week. The normal travel rules may not apply, due to demand reducing the available seats and jacking up prices.

It's 714 miles from Times Square in Manhattan to Monument Circle in the center of the City of Indianapolis. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there. You could get nonstop flights on United Airlines from Newark to Indianapolis International Airport, it will be expensive, in the neighborhood of $800 if you're lucky. The Number 8 bus is a 45-minute ride from the airport to downtown.

Amtrak doesn't work this time, because they've suspended Cardinal service from Penn Station to Union Station in Indianapolis. Union Station is at 350 S. Illinois Street, corner of South Street, 6 blocks from the Fieldhouse.

Indianapolis' Union Station

Greyhound runs 4 buses a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Indianapolis. The fare is $254, but it can drop to $203 with advanced purchase. The station is at 154 W. South Street, at Illinois Street, around the corner from Union Station. (That's right, "West South Street," but that's South Street, west of downtown.)

If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike, and take Interstate 78 West across New Jersey, and at Harrisburg get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which at this point will be both I-70 and I-76. When the two Interstates split outside Pittsburgh, stay on I-70 west. You'll cross the northern tip of West Virginia, and go all the way across Ohio (through Columbus), and halfway through Indiana.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, and an hour and 15 minutes in Indiana. That' going to be 11 and a half hours. Counting rest stops, preferably 6 of them, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Indianapolis, it should be about 14 hours.

Once In the City. Indianapolis, named (as was its State) for the Native Americans, was founded in 1821, 200 years ago (Bicentennial Day was January 6), and is home to over 888,000 people -- making it the 2nd-largest city in the Midwest, behind Chicago -- with a metropolitan area of 2.4 million.

Like many other cities, Indianapolis experienced "white flight": While it was 81 percent white in 1970, that figure is now down to 56 percent, with 29 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian.

Notably, Indianapolis was spared a race riot after Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Senator Robert F. Kennedy had planned to give a speech in a black neighborhood in advance of the Indiana Primary, and the Mayor at the time, Richard Lugar, later himself a Senator and a Presidential candidate (Republican, 1996), advised Bobby to cancel. He wouldn't, and gave a speech calling for an end to violence, as Dr. King would have wanted. He kept the peace, and won the Primary. Two months later, he was also assassinated.

The centerpoint of the City, and indeed of the State, is the 284-foot-high Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument inside Monument Circle, at Market & Meridian Streets. Interstate 465 serves as a beltway.

The Indiana State Soldiers and Sailors Monument,

at Monument Circle

The sales tax in the State of Indiana is 7 percent. ZIP Codes in Indianapolis start with the digits 462, and the Area Code is 327, with 463 overlaid. Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) supplies the electricity. There's no subway, but IndyGo offers a $4.00 all-day pass for its buses.

The State House

Going In. Lucas Oil Stadium, named for an energy company, opened in 2008. Its official address is 500 South Capitol Avenue. It is bounded by Capitol, McCarty Street, Missouri Street and South Street. It's downtown, with the Amtrak station only a block away and the Greyhound station across the street, so unless you flew in, you won't need to take public transportation to get there.

Stadium with roof closed

Indianapolis doesn't have a "sports complex," but the Pacers' Bankers Life Fieldhouse and the Triple-A ballpark are short walks away on either side.

Parking at the stadium is $20, and all parking is first-come-first-served. Tailgating must take place either in front of, or behind, the parked vehicle without blocking the drive aisle. For safety reasons, all aisle ways must have room for a vehicle to pass through. There will be no tailgating in an empty parking space: No parking spaces will be purchased for tailgating, and all parking spaces must be occupied with a vehicle. There will be no tents set up across aisle ways. Charcoal grills and the throwing of balls are not permitted.

Stadium with roof open

The stadium looks like red brick, as do a lot of buildings in the city. Actually, it's made out of Indiana limestone -- as is the decidedly not-brick-looking Empire State Building. This makes it look more like an oversized version of an old-style gym. This was also done with the new Pacers arena. Inside, the "old gym" look continues, making it a huge improvement over the Hoosier Dome, which more closely, inside and out, resembled the atrocious Metrodome in Minneapolis.

In spite of its retractable roof, the stadium has artificial turf, specifically FieldTurf. In fact, the Colts haven't played a home game on natural grass since they left Baltimore after the 1983 season. While fully enclosed, behind each end zone is a large window that can be opened; however, there's not much of a view to speak of, since Indianapolis isn't exactly loaded with interesting skyscrapers.

Lucas Oil Stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVI, the Giants' 2nd title game victory over the New England Patriots. It hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2010 (Duke beating Butler despite Butler playing in their hometown), 2015 (Duke winning for the 5th time, the 3rd time in Indy, over Wisconsin), and 2021 (Baylor beating Gonzaga). Indianapolis is where the NCAA keeps its headquarters, and after 4 Final Fours were held at the Hoosier Dome, they've decided to make sure the Final Four is held in Indianapolis at least once every 5 years. It will host again in 2026. For this event, the stadium can be adjusted into a 70,000-seat configuration. 

It has also hosted the Big Ten Football Championship since its first game in 2011, and is under contract to do so through 2021. And it will host the College Football National Championship Game for the 2021-22 season. (UPDATE: It will host the Final Four again in 2029.)

It was built on the site of the Expo Center, which hosted 2 shows by Elvis Presley on October 5, 1974.

On September 12, 2017, Thrillist had an article ranking all 31 NFL stadiums. Lucas Oil Stadium ranked 8th, in the top quartile:

The brick behemoth is meant to look like an old-school high school gym -- albeit one with a retractable roof and a massive (also retractable) bank of windows at its north end. With the top closed, the noise from 62,000 spectators gets projected onto the field, making this a decidedly unfriendly place for visiting teams. 

Food. Indiana is in the heart of the Midwest, right-smack-dab in the middle (or what used to be the middle, before Penn State, and then Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, were admitted) of Big Ten Country, where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament. So you would expect there to be great food inside the Colts' stadium.

Certainly, there are plenty of stands. The stadium's website specifically mentions these varieties, although not at which sections they can be bought: Hot Dogs, Pork Tenderloins, Homestyle Pot Roast Sandwich, Gyros, Pizza, Philly Cheese Sandwich (I'm presuming they mean "Philadelphia-style Cheesesteak Sandwich," unless they mean "Philadelphia Band Cream Cheese Sandwich"), Chicken Caesar Salad, "Barbeque" (the Q should be a C), French Fries, Onion Rings and Ice Cream (I'd recommend the last 2, but not together).

About those pork tenderloins: The Thrillist article says:

The concessions menu offers one true gem: an authentic breaded tenderloin sandwich. This is basically a piece of pork pounded paper-thin, flash-fried, and served on a bun with fries. Unheard of outside of Indiana, it's the Hoosier state sandwich and well worth a taste.

Team History Displays. The Colts hang their championship banners at each end of the stadium. At the north end are the ones they've won from 2004 onward, including their 2006 World Championship and 2009 AFC Championship banners. At the south end are the ones they won from 1995 to 2003.

There is no mention of their achievements from their days in Baltimore, which is as it should be, since the Indianapolis Colts did not win the 1958, 1959, 1968 and 1970 NFL Championships, nor Super Bowl V.

In the 2 cities combined, the franchise has won 4 World Championships, including 2 Super Bowls, and 5 NFL Championships. They've won 19 Division Championships: The NFL Western (yes, the NFL placed Northeastern city Baltimore in the West) in 1958, 1959 and 1964; the NFL Coastal in 1968; the AFC Eastern in 1970, 1975, 1976 and 1977 in Baltimore, and 1987 and 1999 in Indianapolis; and the AFC South in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014.

The Colts have a Ring of Honor, currently with 12 players, 4 nonuniformed men, and a notation for Colt fans:

* From the 1987-88 team that was the 1st Colt team to make the Playoffs in Indianapolis: "Original" team owner Bob Irsay, running back Eric Dickerson, offensive tackle Chris Hinton (the only one of these players who was with them in Baltimore), and receiver Bill Brooks.

* From the 1995-96 team that reached the AFC Championship Game: Irsay, head coach Ted Marchibroda, quarterback Jim Harbaugh (now the head coach at the University of Michigan); running back Marshall Faulk. Marchibroda also coached the Baltimore Colts to AFC East titles in 1975, '76 and '77. He is also the only man to have been head coach of both the Colts and their replacements, the Baltimore Ravens.

* From the 2006-07 team that won Super Bowl XLI, and the 2009-10 team that won the AFC Championship but lost Super Bowl XLIV: General manager Bill Polian, head coach Tony Dungy, quarterback Peyton Manning, running back Edgerrin James, receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, center Jeff Saturday, and defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.

It should be "1998-2011." They had the room.

The Colts have 8 retired numbers. All but Manning's 18 are from their Baltimore years: 19, quarterback Johnny Unitas; 22, running back Buddy Young; 24, running back Lenny Moore; 70, defensive tackle Art Donovan; 77, guard Jim Parker; 82, receiver Raymond Berry; and 89, defensive end Gino Marchetti. Number 12 not retired for the fans, and was recently worn by former quarterback Andrew Luck.

Only Young left the team before it won the 1958 NFL Championship. The rest were all together from 1957 to 1961, and Donovan was the only other that didn't last until 1966. Donovan was the 1st Baltimore athlete to get his number retired, before Unitas, before Brooks or Frank Robinson. Unitas was the only one to last to their Super Bowl III loss, much less their Super Bowl V win.

From the Baltimore years: Unitas, Moore, Donovan, Parker, Berry, Marchetti, and a pair of players from the Super Bowl V win, tight end John Mackey and linebacker Ted Hendricks, are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Also from that team, linebacker Mike Curtis should be in the Hall of Fame, but isn't. Also worthy of consideration is defensive end Charles "Bubba" Smith, who's probably now better known as an actor.

Mackey wore Number 88, also worn by Harrison. Curtis and James wore 32. Neither of these numbers has yet been retired, but neither is any of them currently being worn. 

Also in the Hall are 1954-62 head coach Weeb Ewbank (who led the Colts to World Championships in 1958 and 1959 and then beat them for one for the Jets in 1969), and 1953-56 defensive back and 1963-69 head coach Don Shula (who lost Super Bowl III, then was replaced by Don McCafferty who won Super Bowl V, but Shula went on to coach the Miami Dolphins in 5 Super Bowls, winning VII and VIII).

From the Indianapolis years: Polian, Dungy, Dickerson, Faulk, Manning, James and Harrison are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So is Chicago Bears legend Richard Dent, who played the 1996 season with the Colts. 

Unitas, Berry, Parker, Marchetti, and Hendricks were named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary team in 1994. Moore, Mackey and Dickerson, were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. All of those, as well as Manning and Faulk, were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010. Unitas, Moore, Berry, Parker, Marchetti, Mackey, Hendricks, Dickerson, Manning, Harrison, placekicker Adam Vinatieri, and 1960s Baltimore head coach Don Shula were named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019. A statue of Manning now stands outside Lucas Oil Stadium.

Despite their long history, only 4 Heisman Trophy winners have ever played for the Colts franchise, and only 1 of those in Indianapolis: Gino Torretta, the 1992 winner at the University of Miami, played quarterback for the Colts in 1997, and was so bad, he was one of the reasons the Colts had to draft Manning, who, that year, finished 2nd to Michigan's Charles Woodson in the Heisman voting.

Two of the Baltimore players made little impact: Running back Frank Sinkwich, the 1942 winner at Georgia, played for the original Colt team, in the AAFC in 1947, but didn't do much. Nor did Billy Vessels, the Oklahoma running back who won the Trophy in 1952, in his brief Baltimore run in 1956.

But Alan "the Horse" Ameche, who won it with Wisconsin in 1954, played with the Colts from 1955 to 1960, scored the winning touchdown in the 1958 NFL Championship Game, and was apparently on his way to a Hall of Fame career when an Achilles tendon injury forced him out of the football business and into the restaurant business.

The games between the former Baltimore team, the Colts, and the current Baltimore team, the Ravens, mean a whole lot more to Baltimore than to Indianapolis. To people in Indiana, the Ravens are just another team that they might face in the AFC Playoffs.

Actually, being in the AFC South means that the teams that should be their geographic rivals aren't: The 2 closest teams are the Chicago Bears and the Cincinnati Bengals. The Colts lead the Bears 25-19 and the Bengals 20-12; but if you count only games where they represented Indianapolis, the Colts trail the Bears 4-6 and lead the Bengals 15-8.

Ask a Colts fan who their arch-rivals are, and they'd probably say the New England Patriots. At least that dates back to the old AFC East, from 1970 to 2001, including Baltimore vs. Boston from 1970 to 1983. But it's more for their Playoff matchups, especially after it became Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady.

The Pats hold a whopping 52-29 lead in the rivalry, including having won the last 8. Counting just the Colts' Indianapolis years, they trail the Pats 14-38. The Colts' last win was on November 15, 2009, a 35-34 win at Lucas Oil Stadium. There have been 5 Playoff meetings, with the Pats winning in 2003-04, 2004-05, 2013-14 and 2014-15, and the Colts winning in 2006-07.

Stuff. The Colts Pro Shop is in the stadium's northeast corner, at South & Capitol. Additional souvenir stands are all over.

In 2013, Lew Freedman published Indianapolis Colts: The Complete Illustrated History, taking the team from their 1984 arrival through the 2012 season, the first with Andrew Luck at quarterback. Freedman has written many sports books, including a similar book about the Giants and a biography of LeBron James.

The DVDs Colts: The Complete History (including the Baltimore years but only going up to 2006 and thus missing the Super Bowl win by 1 season) and the official Super Bowl XLI DVD should be available at the Pro Shop. If not, they are available at Amazon.com

During the Game. According to a recent Thrillist article, Colt fans were ranked 18th, in the middle of the NFL's pack when it comes to "obnoxiousness":

There are basically three kinds of Colts fans: die-hards who thought building the Hoosier Dome before you had an actual team was a stroke of GENIUS; Peyton Manning fans who dropped $200 on an authentic jersey in 2005 and don't much feel like switching; and people who know nothing about football and are just attracted by the smell of frying pork. 

Because of their Midwestern/Heartland image, Colts fans like a "family atmosphere." They don't much like New York, but they won't bother Giant or Jet fans just for being Giant or Jet fans, or for wearing Giant or Jet gear in their stadium. Indiana is first and foremost a basketball State, so as long as you don't mention the Knicks-Pacers rivalry, or say anything bad about Reggie Miller or former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, you should be okay.

From September 1 to 7, 2017, at the height of the NFL National Anthem protest controversy,

FiveThirtyEight.com polled fans of the 32 NFL teams, to see where they leaned politically. Despite Indiana's natural conservatism, Colt fans were said to be in the more liberal half of NFL fanbases, 4.9 percent more liberal than conservative.

The Colts' mascot is a man in a suit designed to look like a blue horse, named Blue. The Colts hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular.

Blue, horsing around with a pair of Colts cheerleaders

They don't seem to have a fight song, although in their Baltimore years they had the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, which kept going, nicknamed "The Band That Wouldn't Die," and are now the Baltimore Marching Ravens. But don't expect to hear the old fight song, "Fight On You Baltimore Colts," at either Lucas Oil or M&T Bank Stadium. What you could expect to hear is the Black Keys' song "Gold On the Ceiling."

After the Game. Indianapolis is a big city, bigger than most people realize, and has every problem that comes with that, including crime. But since the stadium is right downtown, this will probably not affect you. As I said, leave the home fans alone, and they'll probably leave you alone. I can't find a reference to a bar in Indianapolis were expatriate (not to be confused with "ex-Patriot") New Yorkers gather to watch the Giants.

If your visit to Indianapolis is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet to see your club is at Chatham Tap, 719 Massachusetts Avenue, on the northeastern edge of downtown. Another possibility is the Union Jack Pub, at 924 Broad Ripple Avenue, about 8 miles north of downtown. Bus 17 will take you to both.

Sidelights. Indianapolis is often said to be boring: Its most common nickname is "India-no-place." On February 3, 2017, Thrillist made a list ranking the 30 NFL cities (New York and Los Angeles each having 2 teams), and Indianapolis came in 21st, in the bottom 1/3rd, saying it's "like a big suburb that's really trying."

But there are some things worth visiting, particularly for a sports fan. As I said, the city's new NFL stadium, new NBA arena, and new minor-league ballpark are within a few blocks of each other downtown.

* Victory Field. This 12,230-seat ballpark opened in 1996 as the home of the Indianapolis Indians of the International League (formerly in the American Association), one of the oldest and proudest minor-league franchises. While the Indians have won just 1 Pennant since moving in, in 2000, they are still a legendary franchise, winning 10 International League Pennants.

There have been 10 future Hall-of-Famers who have played for them: Napoleon Lajoie, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Rube Marquard, Ray Schalk, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Gabby Hartnett, Al Lopez, Harmon Killebrew and Randy Johnson. Three others managed them: Luke Appling, Joe McCarthy and Al Lopez. In addition to McCarthy, Yankee Legends associated with them are Roger Maris, Don Zimmer and Aaron Boone.

Considering their name, it is a bit odd that they were only briefly, from 1952 to 1956, a farm team of the Cleveland Indians. They contributed players to the Pennant winners of the 1939 and '40 Cincinnati Reds, the 1948 Boston Braves, the 1954 Indians, the 1959 Chicago White Sox; and the Reds again in 1970, '72, '75 and '76. Currently, they are the top farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates. 501 W. Maryland Street & West Street.

* Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Formerly Conseco Fieldhouse, and known as Bankers Life Fieldhouse from 2011 to 2021, the Pacers' new arena was designed to be a throwback, "the Camden Yards of basketball," if you will. (A little ironic, but at least this time they only took Baltimore's idea, not it's team. Then again, Washington, D.C. already took the Bullets, now Wizards, in 1973.) In particular, there is a strong resemblance to "Indiana's Basketball Cathedral," Hinkle Fieldhouse. (More about which in a moment.) It seats 18,165.

In their first season at the new arena, 1999-2000, the Pacers reached the NBA Finals for the first time, but got swept by the Los Angeles Lakers. They have not gotten back since.

The WNBA's Indiana Fever and minor-league hockey's Indianapolis Ice also play at Bankers Life. It has regularly (but not every year) hosted the Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament. 125 S. Pennsylvania Street at Georgia Street.

* Site of Hoosier Dome/RCA Dome. The 60,000-seat near-clone of Minneapolis' Metrodome, along with Bob Irsay's greed, made the move of the Colts to Indianapolis possible. It hosted only 24 seasons of NFL football, from 1984 to 2007.

The building, whose name was changed in 1994, hosted 4 Final Fours: 1991 (Duke's 1st title, shocking defending champion UNLV and then beating Michigan's Fab Five), 1997 (Arizona's only title to date, over defending champion Kentucky), 2000 (Michigan State over Florida) and 2006 (Florida over UCLA).

The stadium was demolished in 2008, and its fabric roof was recycled to make hundreds of new products. An expansion of the Indiana Convention Center is now on the site. 100 S. Capitol Avenue at Georgia Street.

* Site of Market Square Arena. Home of the Pacers from 1974 to 1999, this 16,530-seat arena had a weird egg shape, possibly the result of a Seventies-inspired drug haze. It also hosted minor-league hockey, and the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers from 1974 to 1979. This was the first major league team of Wayne Gretzky. It also hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1980 (Louisville over UCLA), and what turned out to be Elvis's last concert, on June 26, 1977. 300 E. Market Street at Alabama Street.

The closest NHL team to Indianapolis is the Columbus Blue Jackets, 174 miles away. The Chicago Blackhawks are a little further away, 184 miles. Due to their long-term presence (the Jackets have only played since 2000), the Hawks are the most popular NHL team throughout Indiana, including those areas closer to St. Louis and Nashville.

* Bush Stadium. This was the Indians' home from 1931 to 1995. It was first known as Perry Field, after the Indians' owner. In 1942, he took his own name off it, and, in line with the war effort, renamed it Victory Field, a name brought back for its replacement.

In 1967, it was renamed Owen J. Bush Stadium, in honor of "Donie" Bush, a former major league shortstop from Indianapolis who had managed the Pirates to the 1927 National League Pennant, and also served the Indianapolis Indians as manager and team president.

Like Wrigley Field in Chicago and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Bush Stadium had ivy on its outfield walls. In 1987, it was dressed up to resemble both Chicago's Comiskey Park and Cincinnati's Redland Field (later Crosley Field) for the movie Eight Men Out, about the 1919-21 Black Sox Scandal, as it was one of the few remaining pre-1920 ballparks left. (Comiskey Park was still standing, but it didn't yet have an upper deck in 1919, so it was unsuitable for the film.) Interestingly enough, both the White Sox and the Reds had the Indians as their top farm team for some time (though not, of course, at the same time).

The Indians won Pennants at Bush Stadium in 1949, 1956, 1963, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1994. Peak capacity was 15,000. The Indianapolis ABCs of the Negro Leagues -- named for the American Brewing Company -- played here from 1931 to 1938. So did the Indianapolis Clowns, for whom Hank Aaron played briefly in 1952, making him the last remaining active former Negro League player, in 1976. The Clowns were also the last remaining Negro League team, playing until 1966.

Parts of the stadium have been preserved and turned into housing. 1501 W. 16th Street, northwest of downtown. Number 25 bus.

Across W. 16th Street, at 1502, is Kuntz Stadium, a 5,257-seat soccer stadium. The U.S. national team played 3 games there in the late 1980s. That shows you how far that team has come: They couldn't even sell out 5,000 seats. If they were to play in Indy now, they would sell out the 62,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium.

* Washington Park. The Indians and the ABCs -- the latter then led by perhaps the greatest of the pre-1947 black players, Oscar Charleston -- played here before Perry Field/Bush Stadium opened. 1235 W. Washington Street, on ground now occupied by the Indianapolis Zoo, about a mile and a half east of downtown. Bus 8.

* South Street Park. In 1878, the Indianapolis Blues went 24-36 in the National League, and folded. They played at South Street Park, bounded by Delaware Street, South Street, Alabama Street and a railroad. The site is now retail and a hotel.

* Tinker Park. In 1884, the Indianapolis Hoosiers went a horrible 29-78 in the American Association, and folded. They played at Seventh Street Park, bounded by Senate Boulevard, 16th Street, Capitol Street and 18th Street. In 1887, a new team with the same name began National League play there, with the ballpark renamed Athletic Park, but the new Hoosiers only lasted through the 1889 season. It was later renamed Tinker Park. The Indiana University Medical Center is on the site now, about 2 miles north of downtown. Bus 28. 

* Federal Park. In 1914, the Federal League was founded, and their 1st Pennant was won by a new version of the Indianapolis Hoosiers, going 88-65. They played at Federal Park. In spite of the Hoosiers' success, they wanted another team in the New York market, along with the Brooklyn Tip-Tops, and the Hoosiers played the 1915 season in Harrison, New Jersey, as the Newark Peppers. Federal Park was at 400 Kentucky Avenue at West Street, 2 blocks west of Lucas Oil Stadium.

Don't expect Indianapolis to get a major league team anytime soon: The metro area would rank 29th in Major League Baseball. It would actually rank higher in the NHL, 25th, but who thinks of hockey when they think of Indiana sports?

The nearest MLB teams to Indianapolis are the Cincinnati Reds, 112 miles away; the Chicago White Sox, 178 miles; the Chicago Cubs, 188 miles; and the St. Louis Cardinals, 242 miles. But according to a recent New York Times article, the most popular team in and around Indianapolis is the Cubs, with the Yankees 2nd, and the Reds and the Boston Red Sox battling it out for 3rd. Why? And why not the much-closer White Sox or Cardinals? Because of the media, particularly the influence of Chicago's superstation WGN, and ESPN and Fox constantly showing the Yankees and Red Sox.

* Hinkle Fieldhouse. Formerly Butler Fieldhouse, and renamed for longtime basketball coach Tony Hinkle, this gym was built for Butler University in 1928, and has hosted countless Indiana basketball memories, including the State high school championships. Most notably, it hosted the 1954 Final, which saw Milan defeat Muncie Central, inspiring the film Hoosiers, which filmed on the same court and used the original announcers. (Milan had also been to the Final 2 years earlier, so while it was an upset, it wasn't like Milan was a total unknown. An underdog, yes; a dark horse, no.)

Seating 15,000 at its peak (a sellout of which at the 1987 Pan American Games becoming, to this day, the largest crowd ever to attend a volleyball match in America), modernizations, including wider seats, have reduced capacity to 10,000. But it still stands, and is one of the oldest remaining buildings to have hosted one of the 4 major sports leagues in North America. 510 W. 49th Street, north of downtown. Number 28 bus, then walk west on 49th from Illinois Street to Rookwood Avenue.

Indiana University is in Bloomington, 50 miles to the southwest. Purdue University is in West Lafayette, 68 miles to the northwest. The University of Notre Dame is in South Bend, 149 miles to the north. And Ball State University is in Muncie, 60 miles to the Northeast.

On November 19, 2018, Moneywise compiled a list of their Worst College Football Stadiums, the bottom 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Ball State was ranked 15th: "Scheumann Stadium would never make a Top 10 list from Ball State alum David Letterman."

* Previous Indiana NFL teams. The Muncie Flyers played only in the NFL's 1st 2 seasons, 1920 and 1921, when it was still known as the APFA, the American Professional Football Association. They only played 3 games against NFL teams, lost them all, dropped out, and folded after the 1925 season.

Bosse Field, built in 1915 and the oldest regularly-used stadium for minor-league baseball, was the home of the Evansville Crimson Giants. They also lasted just 2 seasons, going 3-2 against NFL competition in 1921 and 0-3 in 1922. The ballpark has an address named for the city's favorite baseball son: 23 Don Mattingly Way (formerly N. Main Street), 164 miles southwest of Indianapolis, across the Ohio River from Henderson, Kentucky.

The Hammond Pros were founding members of the APFA/NFL in 1920, but folded after the 1926 season, never having won more than 2 games in a season. And while they represented that industrial city just outside Chicago, home to writer and radio show host Jean Shepherd of A Christmas Story fame, they didn't play in Hammond. They played at Cubs Park, soon to be renamed Wrigley Field. Downtown Hammond is 159 miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis, and Wrigley is 30 miles northwest of that -- still closer than the 49ers' new stadium in Santa Clara is to downtown San Francisco.  

* Previous Indiana NBA teams. The 1st pro basketball team in Indianapolis was first called the Indianapolis Kautskys, founded by grocer Frank Kautsky in 1931. In 1937, they joined the National Basketball League, and were thus big enough to move into Butler (Hinkle) Fieldhouse.

They made the Playoffs in 1942, '47 and '48. In 1948, they, along with the NBL's Minneapolis Lakers, Fort Wayne Pistons and Rochester Royals, jumped to the Basketball Association of America, which became the NBA a year later. Because the league didn't allow commercial names, the team's name was changed to the Indianapolis Jets. But they only lasted 1 season, as the Olympians arrived.

Today, the Kautskys/Jets are noted mainly for having on their roster John Wooden, who coached UCLA to 10 National Championships from 1964 to 1975; and Branch McCracken, who coached Indiana to the 1940 and 1953 National Championships.

In 1949, the Indianapolis Olympians were welcomed into the NBL, but then the merger with the BAA happened to become the NBA, and the Olympians, so named because of their players' representation of the U.S. in winning the Gold Medal at the 1948 Olympics in London, were in, and the Jets were out. They included Alex Groza (brother of Cleveland Browns star Lou Groza), Ralph Beard, Cliff Barker and Wallace "Wah-Wah" Jones, all of whom had played on the University of Kentucky's 1948 and '49 National Champions; Paul Walther of the University of Tennessee and Clarence "Kleggie" Hermsen of the University of Minnesota.

Also playing at the Butler fieldhouse, the Olympians won the Western Division in 1950, and made the Playoffs again in 1951. But after that season, Groza and Beard were banned from the NBA for life after they admitted shaving points at Kentucky. The Olympians never recovered, and folded after the 1953 season.

The Anderson Packers played from 1946 to 1951 at Anderson High School, 4610 Madison Avenue, 41 miles to the northeast. Not reachable by public transportation.

The Fort Wayne Pistons began in the NBL in 1941, 128 miles to the northeast, and won that league's title in 1944 and '45 -- making them, technically if not officially, the World Champions of professional basketball for those seasons. Owner Fred Zollner and his sister Janet ran a foundry, manufacturing Pistons.

The team moved into the NBA in 1948, and won the Western Division and reached the Finals in 1955 (losing to the Syracuse Nationals) and 1956 (losing to the Philadelphia Warriors). But despite moving from the gym at North Side High School (475 E. State Boulevard) to the new 13,000-seat Allen County War Memorial Coliseum (still standing at 4000 Parnell Avenue) in 1952, they were stuck in a market that was too small for the major leagues.

In 1957, Zollner moved the team to Detroit -- the Motor City, so keeping the "Pistons" name made sense. (Ironically, they weren't much closer to Indianapolis than they were to Detroit. Or Chicago, for that matter.) After that, Indianapolis wouldn't have another NBA team until the Pacers arrived with the ABA merger 19 years later.

* Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Opening in 1939 as part of the Indiana State Fair complex, this 6,800-seat arena, formerly known as the Fairgrounds Coliseum, was the Pacers' first home, from 1967 to 1974. It was their home when they won the American Basketball Association Championship in 1970, 1972 and 1973.

Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson successfully defended his title here, beating Brian London on May 1, 1959. On October 31, 1963, a propane leak at a concession stand caused an explosion that killed 74 people during a Holiday On Ice show. Elvis sang there on April 12, 1972.

It has also been home to a series of minor-league hockey teams. The Indianapolis Capitals won the Calder Cup, the championship of the American Hockey League, in 1942 and 1950. The Indianapolis Ice won the Turner Cup, the championship of the International Hockey League, in 1990; and the Ray Miron Cup, the championship of the Central Hockey League, in 2000. The Indiana Ice won the Clark Cup, the championship of the United States Hockey League, in 2009 and 2014.

The current team is called the Indy Fuel, tied into the city's racing theme. 1202 E. 38th Street, northeast of downtown. Number 39 bus.

* Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The most famous building in the State of Indiana, and the largest sports facility in the world, has nothing to do with basketball or football or baseball. It's the home of the Indianapolis 500, held there every year (usually on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend) since 1911 (except for the World War years: 1917, '18, '42, '43, '44 and '45).

The track opened in 1909, and has spread the name of the city all over the world, as drivers from as far away as Britain (Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti), Brazil (Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan), Australia (Scott Dixon and the aptly-named Will Power), Colombia (Juan Pablo Montoya) and Japan (Takuma Sato) have won the 500 in recent years.

The permanent seating capacity is 257,325. Infield seating can push it to over 400,000 -- and the Indy 500 sells out every year. Although the mailing address is "4790 W. 16th Street, Speedway, Indiana 46222," it's within the city limits of Indianapolis, 5 miles northwest of downtown. Number 25 bus.

* Michael Carroll Stadium. This is the home of the Indy Eleven, of the new version of the North American Soccer League, the 2nd division of North American soccer. It sets 12,111. 1001 W. New York Street, a mile west of downtown. There is no bus service there. The nearest MLS team is the Columbus Crew, 178 miles away. The Chicago Fire are 183 miles away.

Early in his career, Elvis gave 8 concerts in 4 days, December 4 through 7, 1955 at the Lyric Theater, at 121 N. Illinois Street, a block west of the Monument. A parking deck is on the site now.

Elvis also sang in Indiana at the Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum on March 30, 1957, June 12, 1972, and October 25, 1976; at Roberts Memorial Stadium in Evansville on June 13, 1972 and October 24, 1976; at Assembly Hall in Bloomington on June 27, 1974 and May 27, 1976; at the Notre Dame Athletic Center (now the Joyce Center) on September 30 and October 1, 1974 and October 20, 1976; and at the Hulman Civic Center in Terre Haute on July 9, 1975.

* Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Standing 284 1/2 feet high at the geographic center of the City and the State, this tower was dedicated in 1902, commemorating the Indiana military personnel of the recent Spanish-American War, the American Civil War, the Mexican-American War, the frontier conflicts that were a part of the War of 1812 (which produced several battles in Indiana), and the American capture of Vincennes from the British during the War of the American Revolution. During the holiday season, it is decorated like a Christmas tree. (If that sounds sacrilegious, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the considerably shorter Civil War Monument is turned into an artificial Christmas tree, and nobody objects.) Monument Circle, at Meridian & Market Streets.

The tallest building in the State of Indiana is the Salesforce Tower, formerly named the Chase Tower, with a roof 700 feet high and spires rising to 830 feet. 111 Monument Circle.

Indianapolis is not big on museums. The best-known is the Indiana State Museum, at a complex that includes the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Washington & West Streets, downtown. Number 8 bus if you don't feel like walking.

William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States and former Territorial Governor (died just 1 month after his 1841 Inauguration), and his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President (1889-1893), both lived in Indiana (as did Abraham Lincoln as a boy). But Grouseland, the house of "Old Tippecanoe," is 130 miles away in Vincennes. The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site is just north of downtown, at 1230 N. Delaware Street. Number 19 bus.

Benjamin Harrison is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery. So are Vice Presidents Thomas Hendricks (served under Grover Cleveland, died in office 1885), Charles Fairbanks (Theodore Roosevelt, 1905-09) and Thomas Marshall (Woodrow Wilson, 1913-21).

So are Bob Irsay, the man who moved the Colts from Baltimore; poet James Whitcomb Riley, novelist Booth Tarkington, bank robber John Dillinger, Sudoku inventor Howard Garns, and James Baskett, the 1st black man to win an Oscar, for playing Uncle Remus in Walt Disney's Song of the South. 700 W. 38th Street, about 4 1/2 miles north of downtown. Bus 38.

Only 3 TV shows are known to have been set in Indianapolis. Close to Home and the U.S. version of the British hit Men Behaving Badly are best forgotten. But the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, which aired from 1975 to 1984, and starred Bonnie Franklin and launched Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli to stardom, was groundbreaking: It was not only the first TV show to show a divorced single mother (rather than a widowed one), but it actually made Indianapolis seem like a fun place to be.

Parks and Recreation is set in the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee. The Fugitive established the hometown of Dr. Richard Kimble (Dave Janssen) as Stafford, not far from South Bend, and the final episode, at the time of its August 29, 1967 airing the most-watched program in U.S. TV history, took place there, although the amusement park where the climactic scene took place was filmed in Southern California. Stranger Things is set in the fictional Indiana town of Hawkins.

Movies set in Indianapolis are also rare. Some early scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind were set there, before moving out to the iconic Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Last year, the cult hit The Fault In Our Stars was set there, but filmed in Pittsburgh.

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No matter what the Colts achieve, and 2 trips to the Super Bowl in 30 years is more than some teams have done, Indiana will always be a basketball State, and Indianapolis will always be a basketball city. But that doesn't mean a visiting football fan can't have fun there.