Jim Irsay, in a way, was an ideal person to own a sports franchise in Indianapolis.

Think about where we live. It's a big city with a small-town, tight-knit feel. It sometimes seems like everybody knows everybody here; chances are, you know somebody who was directly impacted by Irsay's generous spirit.

Indianapolis takes care of its own, and few took care of Indianapolis like Irsay.

But Indianapolis is also a relentlessly competitive city. It's a place that, over the last 50 or so years, has scrapped and fought its way to becoming a nationally-recognized metropolis. That didn't just happen; it took a clear, collective vision and an immense amount of hard work to get Indianapolis to where it is today.

Irsay, too, was defined by the same competitive energy of this city. His vision for the Colts produced a Lombardi Trophy, 10 division titles and a host of Pro Football Hall of Famers, delivering countless moments to what's become one of the NFL's best, most dedicated fanbases.

Irsay often viewed himself less as an owner and more of a steward of a football team. But he was more than that. He was a steward of a city. Indianapolis is what it is now because of Irsay – and that goes beyond a skyline now defined to the south by Lucas Oil Stadium.

The mark he left here – on the community as a whole and the individuals who comprise it – is indelible. Irsay did all he could to give back to Indianapolis, whether it was through donations, random acts of kindness, free events, mental health improvements or by having a football team in which our city could take pride.

Irsay's death leaves a huge hole in our community. But if we follow the example he set and honor the legacy he deserves, collectively, we can all work to fill it.

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Irsay's journey with the Colts began in 1972, when his father, Robert, purchased the Los Angeles Rams and executed an audacious trade with Carroll Rosenbloom to acquire ownership of the Baltimore Colts. Irsay, then a young teenager, began working as a ballboy during training camp that summer. Quickly, he immersed himself in the culture and history of the franchise, fostering a passion for the Colts that persisted for over five decades.

Upon graduating from Southern Methodist University with a degree in broadcast journalism, Irsay began working for the Colts anywhere he was needed – including ticket sales, public relations and football operations – at the team's former facility in Owings Mills, Md. When the team moved to Indianapolis in 1984, the 24-year-old Irsay became the youngest general manager in NFL history; he often pointed to the lessons he learned in that role as impacting the decisions he made when he assumed sole ownership of the Colts in 1997 after his father's passing.

Among those lessons was the importance of bringing in the right people. Irsay quickly did that when, late in 1997, he hired future Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Polian as general manager.

Through Irsay's vision and counsel, and Polian's eye for talent, the Colts assembled a remarkable collection of players – Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne, Jeff Saturday, Dallas Clark, Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis among them. In 2002, Irsay hired Tony Dungy as head coach, ushering a golden era that transformed Indiana into a football state – and cemented the Colts' central place in the region.

The pinnacle of Irsay's five decades with the Colts came on a rainy South Florida evening in 2007, when his team triumphed, 29-17, over the Chicago Bears to win Super Bowl XLI. When the Colts returned from damp warmth of Miami to the freezing February cold of Indianapolis, fans packed the city's downtown streets to welcome a Lombardi Trophy to their town. And upon arriving at the RCA Dome, Irsay and the Colts were greeted by a raucous crowd decked in blue and white to celebrate a world championship.

Irsay didn't stop the celebration there, though: He sent the Lombardi to the people. The NFL's iconic trophy traveled across the state of Indiana, from Evansville in the south to Terre Haute in the west to South Bend in the north to Richmond in the east. The tour also recognized Colts fans outside of Indiana with stops in Louisville, Ky., Owensboro, Ky., and Danville, Ill.

And Irsay wasn't done sharing his team's championship with his dedicated, enthusiastic fans. In the fall of 2007, Irsay set aside five Super Bowl rings for fans to win; he raised $225,000 for charity through a contest to claim those prized rings. He watched as 10 finalists took their shots at guessing which five treasure chests held an authentic Super Bowl ring inscribed with "Colts Fan," further recognizing the massive impact the Colts' fanbase had on the team's success.

Lucas Oil Stadium opened its doors in 2008, and a season later, the Colts reached Super Bowl XLIV. Then, in 2012, Irsay helped lead the effort to bring Super Bowl XLVI to Lucas Oil Stadium – cementing Indianapolis as, truly, a football town. The entire week of events leading up to and including the game is regarded around the NFL as one of the most successful Super Bowls in league history, and it generated hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact — as well as worldwide exposure — for Indianapolis and the state of Indiana.

Indiana – a state known for generations as a basketball hotbed and a football afterthought – was now fully invested as an NFL destination. And that shift is just one of the enduring parts of Irsay's legacy.

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Irsay was one of the league's few owners who bridged the gap between some of the NFL's legendary founders and its newer leadership as the game of football exploded in popularity. Irsay held strong relationships with some of the game's early titans — men with the last names Halas, Mara and Rooney, among others — and was deeply committed to the betterment and success of the league and sport through his work with and influence among club owners.

In the 1980s, Irsay was one of four executives (including Pro Football Hall of Famers George Young and Bill Polian) appointed by former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to design the league's modern salary cap, which still governs rosters to this day.

Irsay positively impacted the league through service on several committees and councils, including the Executive Committee of the Management Council, the Pro-College Relations Committee, the Super Bowl Advisory Committee, the Realignment Working Group and the Working Club Executive Committee.

Irsay chaired the NFL Legislative Committee and was a member of the Finance Committee, where his advocacy of the NFL's history, tradition and principles helped guide the game forward.

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A pillar of Irsay's lasting legacy is the powerful influence Kicking The Stigma has had, is having and will have on improving mental health awareness, research and treatment in Indiana and across the United States.

Irsay and his daughters launched Kicking the Stigma in late 2020 to address a deeply personal, little discussed and critically important issue: Mental health. Since establishing Kicking The Stigma, the Irsay family has had a profound, positive impact on the mental health of Hoosiers and Americans.

Through grants and personal donations by Irsay and his family, Kicking The Stigma has committed more than $31 million toward raising awareness and expanding treatment and research, including the opening of the Irsay Institute at Indiana University in 2023. And, to date, Kicking The Stigma has raised and distributed more than $6.4 million for Action Grants that have been awarded to dozens of nonprofits to expand mental health treatment in Indiana and beyond.

Kicking The Stigma has also produced several national PSAs designed to knock down the stigma that prevents millions of Americans from addressing their own mental health. And those PSAs have had a massive impact: Take, for example, the security officer who approached former Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard at the Jim Irsay Collection event at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2022. The officer told Leonard, the star linebacker who was a leading voice in Kicking The Stigma PSAs and events, that Leonard sharing his mental health journey helped him pull him out of a dark place mentally – and that he might not have been standing there that day without Leonard's vulnerability and strength.

And, ultimately, without Irsay's deep commitment to mental health. Irsay's own vulnerability through Kicking The Stigma events and content added a certain important authenticity to the initiative's messaging.

Mental health, though, is hardly the only avenue in which Irsay has driven the betterment of the community he calls home. Irsay's extensive philanthropic efforts touched millions of Hoosiers by building a healthy, inclusive and compassionate community through intentional, meaningful outreach, projects and partnerships.

Irsay went above and beyond during the COVID-19 pandemic to support frontline workers, students, restaurant staff, small business owners and those in need through purposeful fundraisers, donations and publicity. He and his family have also supported several community-based initiatives and projects, such as the Irsay Family YMCA, Peyton Manning Children's Hospital, Indiana Black Expo, Gleaners Food Bank, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Girls Inc., Wheeler Mission Center for Women & Children, Indiana University's Irsay Family Wellness Center and the downtown Colts Canal Playspace, among many others.

Irsay also forged paths for underrepresented groups to cut through barriers to entry into the NFL. In 2022, Irsay created the Tony Dungy Diversity Fellowship, which annually offers a pair of year-long, full-time positions on the Colts' coaching staff to talented people of color; the Colts' inaugural defensive Dungy Fellow, Brent Jackson, was retained after his fellowship concluded and has been on the Colts' coaching staff ever since.

And in 2023, the Harriet P. Irsay Fellowship for Women in Football was created to provide an opportunity for a woman to join either the Colts' coaching staff or football operations department for a year-long position. Isabel Diaz, the inaugural Harriet P. Irsay fellow, has worked with the Colts' special teams units since 2023; Lauren James, a Harriet P. Irsay fellow in 2024, is now a trusted member of Rick Carlisle's staff with the Indiana Pacers.

Irsay, too, championed franchise-wide and league-wide efforts to work with players, coaches, staff and community leaders on efforts to combat racism, increase educational and economic opportunities and unite people through positive change.

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Few private citizens built a collection of music history, pop culture artifacts and Americana as robust and impressive as Irsay's – and no single person nor institution provided Americans with as much access to so much history as Irsay did through The Jim Irsay Collection.

Through The Jim Irsay Collection's events – always free to the public – Irsay brought his "traveling museum" across our nation, from New York to Los Angeles, from San Francsico to Boston and to a swelling crowd of thousands at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2022 and 2023, among other stops.

Among the items that've been displayed as part of Irsay's traveling museum: Jack Kerouac's original 119-foot scroll manuscript to On The Road; the original manuscript for Alcoholics Anonymous' Big Book; Muhammed Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle" championship belt and his boxing shoes from the "Thrilla' in Manilla;" Secretariat's triple crown saddle; one of the first facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence (dated to 1823); and, of course, a grand, moving collection of instruments from the greatest, most influential musicians of the 20^th century.

Guitars, drums and other instruments played by Bob Dylan, members of The Beatles, Prince, Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Pete Townshend, Les Paul, Janis Joplin, David Gilmour, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, among other music icons, are prominently displayed as part of The Jim Irsay Collection. But Jim Irsay Collection events don't merely showcase those renowned instruments – they brought those instruments to life with spirited performances by the star-studded Jim Irsay Band.

Several Grammy nominees and well-known musicians comprised the band. Among the members: Kenny Aronoff on drums, Billy Branch on harmonica, Tom Bukovac on guitar, Mike Mills on bass and vocals, Danny Nucci on guitar and saxophone, Michael Ramos on keyboards, Carmella Ramsey on violin, mandolin and vocals, Kenny Wayne Shepherd on guitar and vocals and Mike Wanchic on guitar.

Together, those musicians have multiple Grammy nominations and have played with legendary rockers and bands such as Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, the Rolling Stones, R.E.M., Reba McEntire and Olivia Newton-John, among others.

While those attending The Jim Irsay Collection events are treated to a free performance by that group of world-class musicians, the Jim Irsay Band has also been joined by fabled guest performances such as Mellencamp, Stephen Stills (Crosby, Stills & Nash), Ann Wilson (Heart), John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival), Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon), Natalie Merchant (formerly of 10,000 Maniacs), Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ Top), Buddy Guy, Vince Gill, John Hiatt and Robert Randolph.

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Irsay made a monumental impact on the Colts, the city of Indianapolis, the NFL and the United States through his leadership, vision and initiatives. But his greatest accomplishment in life was raising his three exceptional daughters, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson.

All three daughters, like Irsay, grew up with the Colts and have been immersed in all facets of the organization since their earliest years. In 2012, Irsay-Gordon, Foyt and Jackson were promoted to the position of vice chair and owner, and now, they represent the next generation of Colts ownership in Indianapolis.

And through his family, Irsay's legacy will continue on by entertaining, inspiring and uniting Colts fans by winning the right way.