Stampede Blue
The Colts longtime team owner, who recently passed away, will be honored by joining the franchise’s illustrious Ring of Honor ahead of the 2025 regular season opener.
On what would’ve been his 66th birthday on Friday, the Indianapolis Colts announced that late team owner Jim Irsay will be inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor ahead of their Week 1 matchup (9/7) against the Miami Dolphins at 1 PM EST (CBS):
The longtime owner of the Colts recently passed away peacefully in his sleep on May 21, 2025, after undergoing some recent health issues.
The Colts are already expected to wear commemorative Jim Irsay black jersey patches—with his initials and signature for the 2025 campaign, honoring their former team owner.
Irsay becomes the 20th ‘individual’ joining the franchise’s sacred Ring of Honor (including retroactively, ‘Colts Nation’ back in 2007), and the latest since former tight end great Dallas Clark was inducted just last season.
The Colt have only inducted two members into their Ring of Honor once during the same season, 2013 with both franchise running back legends Eric Dickerson and Marshall Faulk, so Jim Irsay may very well be the Horseshoe’s lone inductee for the 2025 campaign—which seems fitting, given his enormous past gravitas and influence for the franchise as owner.
Having previously served as the franchise’s vice president/general manager from 1984-93, and then following his late father’s passing, Irsay served as the Colts principal team owner/CEO or ‘steward’ as he liked to call it from 1997-2024.
His biggest feats as Colts owner included the hiring of Hall Famers, general manager Bill Polian and head coach Tony Dungy, as well as the drafting of another Hall of Famer quarterback Peyton Manning #1 overall back in the 1998 NFL Draft. All three top leaders were instrumental for the Colts winning their first Super Bowl during the 2006 season and arguably ushering in one of the most winning eras in NFL history—with a roster loaded with future Hall of Famers and Ring of Honor caliber standouts.
However, from a philanthropic standpoint, he was instrumental in giving back to the city and state, helping initiate the ‘Kicking the Stigma’ campaign—which raises awareness for mental health (and likely has saved lives); donating to the ‘Chuck Strong’ campaign, raising research funding to combat cancer with former head coach Chuck Pagano, a well known cancer survivor, as well as many charitable acts that have happened and gone on behind the scenes, as he preferred to remain anonymous, acting virtuously behind the curtain.
From a personal standpoint, Irsay was eccentric, never shying away from how he truly felt publicly (see his past Dan Snyder comments), but he also shared a wide collection of musical artifacts to the general public and even started his own ‘Jim Irsay Band’ later in his life (until his failing personal health no longer permitted it). He held popular weekly Twitter giveaways, and really just tried to be as relatable and endearing to the Colts every fan—as best as an NFL billionaire...
