Colts vs. Raiders has a Storied History

When the Las Vegas Raiders play the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday, New Year’s Eve, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, it will be only the 22nd time the teams have met in the 64-year history of the Silver and Black.

That’s because when the Raiders were founded as one of the original eight teams in the inaugural season of the American Football League in 1960, the Colts -- who were then located in Baltimore -- played in the established National Football League.

The Colts were one of the outstanding NFL teams during the 1950s, winning league championships under Coach Weeb Ewbank in 1958 and 1959 after the franchise was founded 1953 as an NFL expansion team.

The Colts featured future Hall of Famers as Ewbank, quarterback Johnny Unitas, running back Lenny Moore, tackle Jim Parker, wide receiver Raymond Berry, and defensive end Gino Marchetti.

When the Colts beat the New York Giants, 23-17, in the 1958 NFL Championship Game at Yankee Stadium in New York on running back Alan Ameche’s one-yard touchdown run in overtime, it was called “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”

But Unitas thought otherwise.

“To me, the biggest game we played and the one I’ll always remember most was not the ’58 NFL Championship Game, but the one on November 30 that year at Memorial Stadium (in Baltimore) when we clinched the Western Conference against the San Francisco 49ers,” Unitas said of the game in which the Colts trailed, 27-7, at halftime but rallied for a 35-27 victory to clinch a spot in the NFL title game.

“I’ve always felt that the ‘58 championship game wasn't a real good football game until the last two minutes, and then the overtime. Just the fact that it was the first overtime game in championship play and it happened in Madison Avenue’s backyard, that was enough to make people feel they had seen something fantastic.”

The Raiders hold an 11-10 lead over the Colts in the all-time series, which dates to a 27-17 victory by Baltimore in the 1971 American Football League Championship Game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore when Unitas clinched the victory with a 68-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ray Perkins.