INDIANAPOLIS — Family and friends will gather at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church at noon on Monday for a private memorial for Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who died of an undisclosed cause last month.
Irsay was 65.
While Irsay’s professional legacy is as a longtime NFL franchise titan who brought both a Super Bowl in 2012 and a Super Bowl championship in 2007 to Indianapolis, his behind-the-scenes commitment to the people of central Indiana will enshrine him as one of the state’s great leaders and citizens.
”He was one of the most unique people I ever met in my life, but one of the best people too,” said former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. “He had a huge heart.”
”He was a lion,” said Gleaners Food Bank President Fred Glass. “And had an impact on the city that will be felt for generations to come.”
Worth an estimated $5.4 billion at the time of his death, Irsay was known for his generosity to strangers, fans, employees, service personnel and professionals as well as the community at large.
”I am quite confident, I know in my case I don’t know a tenth of what he did for the community, for other organizations,” said Peterson. “But what I do know was enormous. Every nonprofit that I’ve been affiliated with we’ve talked to the Colts, we’ve asked Jim for support, he was incredibly philanthropic and generous in the extreme. He was an incredibly generous human being and not because he felt it made him look good. Most of the things that he did were pretty behind-the-scenes. And he never wanted attention called to him personally.”
Glass recounted a backstage Irsay donation to help hungry Hoosiers that enlisted FOX59/CBS4 viewers as his unknowing charitable partners through “Pack the Pantries” campaigns.
“During the pandemic, Jim pretty quietly made a million dollar match pledge that if Gleaners could raise $200,000, he’d give a million dollars at a time when that was very, very much needed.”
Irsay committed $31 million of his fortune to the “Kicking the Stigma” campaign to raise awareness and treatment of mental health issues.
Along with his charitable giving, Irsay loved rock and roll, sports and cultural and historical icons and artifacts. He invited fans to share in his unparalleled guitar collection and attend concerts of his all-star band featuring the greats of rock and blues with their frontman in a black cowboy hat growling out “Lawyers, Guns and Money” or “Comfortably Numb.”
”I was there, man. It was awesome,” Glass said as he recalled Irsay’s concert at Lucas Oil Stadium to open up the Colts’ 2022 season. ”One of the things I want to say about Jim is he was such a cool guy.”
Even though Irsay battled physical ailments and addiction that dogged him most of his life, Glass remembers the team owner who wanted the best financial deal for both his franchise and the city while negotiating the details of the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium 20 years ago.
”He never once threatened to go to Los Angeles or anywhere else,” said Glass. “He never forgot a phone number. He remembered my phone number like 11 years later. So, that’s a fun fact that no one tells that Jim Irsay had a photographic memory when it came to numbers.”
Said Peterson, ”Nothing will be quite the same with Jim Irsay gone.”
The Colts have indicated there will be an announcement of a public memorial service at a later date.