11/21/2006 2:28:53 AM

11/22/2006 10:26:41 PM

quote : After his playing days were finished, Unitas settled in Baltimore where he raised his family. and became a pillar of the community. After Robert Irsay snuck the Colts out of Baltimore in the middle of of a snowy night in 1984 Unitas actively lobbied for Baltimore's return to the NFL. After the NFL returned to Baltimore as the Baltimore Ravens for the 1996 season, Unitas actively supported the franchise as the successor organization to the Baltimore Colts. Unitas cheered on the sidelines for the Ravens at their home games and received a thunderous ovation every time he was pictured on each of the stadium's Jumbotron scoreboards. Unitas was fiercely loyal to the city of Baltimore and the fans of the city adored him like no other sports hero. Unitas was so upset with the move of the Colts out of Baltimore that he repeatedly petitioned the NFL Hall of Fame in private and in public (on Roy Firestone's Up Close) to remove his display from the Hall of Fame as long as it was not listed as belonging to the Baltimore Colts. Unfortunately, the NFL Hall of Fame still has not complied with his request. Unitas donated his Baltimore Colt memorabilia to the Babe Ruth Musuem in Baltimore and it is now on display in the Sports Musuem in Baltimore's Camden Yards Complex. In December of 2005, the state of Indiana was caught trying to capitalize on the legacy of Unitas to help raise money for a new Indianapolis NFL stadium. However, the estate of Unitas has taken all legal measures necessary to ensure that the City of Indianapolis will not be able to profit from the NFL heroics that Unitas provided for the NFL fans of Baltimore. Sudden death He died of a myocardial infarction (heart attack). When Unitas passed away, the Baltimore Ravens football team, along with its fans, strongly petitioned the renaming of their stadium after Unitas. These requests, however, were unsuccessful since naming rights were leased to the Buffalo, New York based company, M&T Bank. Towson University, in Towson, MD (a suburb of Baltimore) named its football and lacrosse complex in honor of Johnny Unitas after his death. He was a major fund raiser for the university; in addition to his children also attending. Peyton Manning had four pairs of hightop black shoes made, which he planned to wear in the Colts 15 September game as a tribute to Unitas. But the NFL threatened to slap Manning with a $25,000 fine if he wore the shoes. Further, it declared that only the Baltimore Ravens would have the sole right to honor Unitas with a patch or armband on their uniforms that Sunday. Toward the end of his life, Unitas brought media attention to the many permanent physical disabilities that he and his fellow players suffered during the early years of football, before padding and other safety features designed to prevent such injuries had been invented. Unitas himself lost almost total use of his right hand, which had become mangled by the end of his playing career, with the middle finger and thumb noticeably disfigured(broken). Legacy Unitas was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. Unitas Tower, a dormitory at the University of Louisville, is named for Johnny Unitas.

11/23/2006 1:47:37 AM

11/23/2006 6:08:07 PM