July 13, 1972: The Owners of the Colts and Rams Swap Teams

Carroll Rosenbloom

July 13, 1972: Carroll Rosenbloom sells the NFL's Baltimore Colts to Robert Irsay, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams. And Irsay sells the Rams to Rosenbloom.

Such a switch had never been attempted before, in any major league sport. But it is legal, and the NFL team owners and Commissioner Pete Rozelle approve this move, since it seems to solve both men's problems.

Rosenbloom, a Baltimore native, had played football at the University of Pennsylvania, and made a fortune in clothing manufacture. One of his coaches at Penn was Bert Bell, who had become Commissioner of the NFL, and recruited him to be the new owner of the Colts in 1953. They won the NFL Championship in 1958 and 1959, reaching but losing the NFL Championship Game in 1964, reaching but losing Super Bowl III in 1969, and winning Super Bowl V in 1971.

He loved owning a pro football team, telling Sports Illustrated in 1965:

After the first year in football, I found that of all the things I've ever done, this is the thing. There is nothing more rewarding. You have everything wrapped up in one bundle. You meet much nicer people than you do in business. You meet the public, and you must learn to look out for them.

There's no place where your word is more your bond than in sports. You'd never find 14 men who deal as fairly with one another as the 14 owners in the National Football League, particularly after some of the things that have gone on in business or on Wall Street. You play a part in the lives of young men, and you help them grow. And then every Sunday you have the great pleasure of dying. 

What Rosenbloom didn't love was Memorial Stadium. Built in 1954, and already under construction when he bought the team, he was leasing it from the City of Baltimore, as were baseball's Baltimore Orioles. The stadium didn't have enough office space for either team, let alone both teams, and Rosenbloom didn't like the standards of the lease, either.

Robert Irsay was from Chicago, and made a fortune in the heating and ventilation business. In 1972, he bought the Los Angeles Rams from the estate of its founding owner, Dan Reeves. (He was not related to the coach who later took the Denver Broncos to 3 Super Bowls.) But he wasn't interested in owning the Rams. He wanted the Colts. So he proposed the swap to Rosenbloom, and they agreed.

Robert Irsay

In the end, though, it dooms both teams. Rosenbloom thought the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was too outdated, so he made a deal to move the Rams to Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). But he died in 1979, before the move could be completed.

His widow, Georgia, inherited the team. Then she remarried, and, as Georgia Frontiere, moved the Rams to her hometown of St. Louis for the 1995 season. Carroll and Georgia's son, film director Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, sold the team in 2010, and new owner Stan Kroenke moved them back to Los Angeles in 2016.

As for Irsay, he didn't like Memorial Stadium any more than Rosenbloom did. He asked the City of Baltimore to build him a new stadium. They wouldn't. He asked the State of Maryland to build him a new stadium. They wouldn't. So he moved the Colts to Indianapolis for the 1984 season, making him the all-time ultimate villain of Baltimore sports fans.

In 1978, a similar switcheroo was be pulled off in the NBA: John Y. Brown Jr., owner of the Buffalo Braves, traded them to Irv Levin, who owned the Boston Celtics. Within a year, though, Brown sold the Celtics, and Levin moved the Braves, making them the San Diego Clippers. And in 1984, in the USFL, Dr. Ted Diethrich traded ownership of the Chicago Blitz to Jim Joseph, owner of the Arizona Wranglers.

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July 13, 1972 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Gary Nolan allowed 9 hits over the 1st 8 innings, and Clay Carroll allowed a hit in the 9th, but the shutout was kept. Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3. Roberto Clemente did not play. Willie Stargell went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Mickey Lolich went the distance for the win, while Paul Splittorff got knocked out of the box in the 1st inning. And the Tigers did this without Al Kaline, who did not play.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Ray Corbin pitched a 6-hit shutout. Carl Yastrzemski did not get any of those hits, though he did draw a walk. Tommy Harper got 3 of them. Harmon Killebrew did not play. Rod Carew went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Reggie Cleveland pitched a 2-hit shutout. Hank Aaron did not get one of those hits. Lou Brock went 0-for-2 with 2 walks and a stolen base. Joe Torre went 0-for-4.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-0 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rich Hand pitched a 6-hit shutout.