A radio/television sports announcer who moved to Baltimore in what turned out to be the final decade of the Baltimore Colts, Ted Patterson has amassed one of the world's premier collections of Baltimore sports memorabilia. In this short history of football in Baltimore, he takes us on a tour of his remarkable collection -- not only to highlight memorable games and players but also to explore the pop culture that surrounded and has survived them.

Patterson introduces us to the teams and early stars of Johns Hopkins and Morgan State; Army-Navy games in old Municipal Stadium; high-school rivalries like City-Poly, Loyola-Calvert Hall, Gilman-McDonogh, and the great years of Patterson High; the original Colts (colors silver and green); and, at considerable length, the legendary Baltimore Colts of Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, Alan "the Horse" Ameche, Artie Donovan, and Lydell Mitchell. He also includes the lastest chapters in this eventful story: the fight to bring pro football back to the city, the dawn of the Ravens' era, and the building of a new football stadium in downtown Baltimore.

Football in Baltimore offers an engaging, wonderfully illustrated history of Baltimore's love affair with the game -- a running essay on the large subject of football in Baltimore's past along with the varied and highly colorful material objects that the game generated for the sake of the fans and that fans generated for the fun of it. Here are game programs, autographed pictures, press guides, bubblegum cards, comic strips, advertising ephemera, and miscellaneous collectibles from championship banners to the special-issue sets of china that Carroll Rosenbloom once gave to the Colts and their wives as Christmas gifts.

This altogether new take on the game and the storied Colts will appeal to every lover of the college and pro game -- and may even inspire popular support for a Colts museum to match the Babe Ruth House and Museum. Patterson's engaging writing style keeps the pages turning. Dozens of color and black-and-white photographs from Patterson's collection will captivate Colts fans, football lovers, local history buffs, and sports memorabilia collectors.