In another winning effort, ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary, “The Band That Wouldn’t Die” continues the network’s attempt to equal HBO Sports efforts. This one on the Baltimore Colts Marching Band tells the love affair of the city with the NFL and the efforts to get a new NFL team after the Colts surreptitiously left under cover of night in 1984.
We pick up the documentary as the Colts are moving away from their Baltimore home of 30 years. Viewers see Mayflower moving trucks hauling office furniture, uniforms and other equipment away to Indianapolis.
It was noted by author William Gildea that Baltimoreans had an inferiority complex being a highway stop on the way to Washington, DC. The Colts gave them a sense of pride being a team that helped to put the NFL on the map in 1958 and winning a Super Bowl in 1971.
And while the first half of the documentary goes into how the Colts moved away from Baltimore, a city that loved the team with a religious passion, we note through thick and thin, one constant was the Marching Band.
Critically acclaimed Director and TV producer Barry Levinson, a Baltimore native, makes the documentary a love letter not only to the early Colts, but to the efforts of the Baltimore Colts Band to not only remain operational, but also be ambassadors for the city, not only to other NFL teams, but to the NFL itself.
Even talking about the move of the team to this day makes old school Colts fans cry. It’s amazing to see how much the fans loved the team and how much they loved hearing the Colts Fight Song. One fan described the Colts’ move as if “your wife left for someone else.”
After the story of the Colts and former owner Robert “Tiger” Irsay’s move to Indy, we hear about how band members, hearing about the departure, had sneaked the band’s uniforms away from the team’s headquarters to a dry cleaner’s. Then moved them from the dry cleaner’s to a plumbing company. John Zieman, a band leader and one of the principle players in the documentary, eventually took the uniforms to a mausoleum where they stayed until the band was ready to play again.
Band members felt that if they stayed intact and not go away, the NFL would have to take notice. So the Baltimore Colts Marching Band became a non-profit organization. It played every year at the Preakness Stakes, at the Baltimore 4th of July Parade and would get great applause everywhere it went.
Ironically, the first NFL stadium it played following the Colts’ move was in Cleveland where former Browns owner Art Modell booked them to play and he made a horrible joke that their price was cheap.
Zieman said the response from the Browns fans was very positive. From there, teams realizing that the band wasn’t a protest group started booking them for halftime shows. The band felt it would be musical ambassadors and keep playing until the NFL returned to Baltimore.
Director Levinson has interview subjects give the band credit for helping to turn the tide to get funding passed for Baltimore’s sports complex which includes Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. A State official saying the band playing the Colts Fight Song on the Maryland State House steps is what helped remind legislators how great the team was and how great things could be again. And he got choked up describing the moment.
In 1991, the band’s biggest gig was when it played at the NFL’s Hall of Fame Game in front of the NFL’s owners and then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. However, the city’s efforts to get expansion teams fell on deaf ears when Baltimore was passed over twice.
It was then Zieman wanted to break up the band, but of all people, his wife told him it wasn’t going to happen. She told him that it was going to remain whether he wanted to play or not.
Baltimore did get a professional football team in 1994, the Baltimore Stallions, that was a CFL franchise. It’s pointed out that Baltimore is the only city to have won an NFL Championship, the Super Bowl, a USFL Championship and CFL’s Grey Cup. But in 1995, Baltimore finally got a team, by raping the city of Cleveland and stealing the Browns away.
Colts fans said they had mixed emotions because they knew exactly how the Browns fans felt about having their hearts ripped out. I don’t fault the fans, they are dedicated people and love their team. Can’t fault them at all.
As the Browns became the Ravens, Zieman appealed to the Modell family to incorporate the band into the team and that’s exactly what happened.
This easily could have been told by other directors, but under the hands of Barry Levinson, you can see how much he loved the Colts and fell in love with the story of the Band. It’s also a story of not giving up and persevering.
An excellent documentary and one that deserves an A. While the Browns becoming the Ravens hurts me personally, I still loved the story of the band. It’s one that everyone can identify with.
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