31 Facts About Jim Irsay

James Irsay was born on June 13,1959 and is an American businessman and the principal owner, chairman, and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League.

The son of businessman Robert Jim Irsay, who acquired the Baltimore franchise in 1972 for $12 million and moved them to Indianapolis in 1984, Jim Irsay was general manager of the Colts from 1984 to 1996.

Jim Irsay was born in Lincolnwood, Illinois, the son of Harriet and Chicago businessman Robert Jim Irsay.

Jim Irsay's father was from a Hungarian Jewish family and his mother was the daughter of Polish Catholic immigrants.

Jim Irsay was raised Catholic, and did not know about his father's Jewish heritage until he was fourteen.

Jim Irsay attended high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb just north of Chicago; and at Mercersburg Academy '78, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

Jim Irsay played linebacker for the SMU Mustangs football team as a walk-on, but an ankle injury ended his playing career.

Jim Irsay boxed, played golf, and lifted weights in his younger years.

Jim Irsay was 12 years old when his father, Robert Jim Irsay, acquired the Baltimore Colts, after initially purchasing the Los Angeles Rams for $12 million and immediately swapping franchises with Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom.

Jim Irsay spent time around the team as a youth, including serving as an on-field ball boy and working in the ticket office helping to answer the phones.

Jim Irsay was initially given an orientation in all facets of the administrative and football operations of the Colts before being added to the personnel department ahead of the 1983 season.

Jim Irsay was made part of the team's personnel department in 1983.

Jim Irsay was named vice president and general manager in early 1984, immediately after the Colts relocated from Baltimore to Indianapolis.

When his father died in 1997, Jim Irsay engaged in a legal battle with his stepmother over ownership of the team and later became the youngest NFL team owner at 37.

Since joining the organization in 1984, Jim Irsay has worked with numerous Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches, players and executives, including Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, Bill Polian, Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James and Peyton Manning.

In 2009, Jim Irsay was vocal about preventing a group that included talk-show host Rush Limbaugh from purchasing the St Louis Rams.

Jim Irsay has made political contributions to John Edwards and Harry Reid.

In October 2022 at a National Football League owner's meeting, Jim Irsay said he believed "that there's merit to remove Daniel Snyder as the owner of the Washington Commanders" amid calls for Snyder to sell the franchise.

On November 20,2022, Jim Irsay donated $1 million to the Indianapolis Zoo.

In December 2021, the Jim Irsay family donated $3 million to Indiana University to create a research institute dedicated to studying mental health and the stigma associated with it.

Jim Irsay has been a staunch supporter of former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano, who beat acute promyelocytic leukemia after being diagnosed in September 2012.

In 2021, Jim Irsay hosted the gala at his house and donated $2 million to the IU cancer research after Pagano made a free throw for $1 million and 10 layups for $100,000 apiece on Jim Irsay's basketball court.

Jim Irsay was involved in bankrolling the necessary funds to relocate and release Lolita and her pacific white-sided dolphin companions, Li'i and Loke.

On March 16,2014, Jim Irsay was arrested under suspicion of Driving Under the Influence and drug possession in Carmel, Indiana.

Jim Irsay had multiple bottles of prescription medication and more than $29,000 in cash in his car at the time of his arrest, with prosecutors claiming that Jim Irsay tested positive for oxycodone and hydrocodone in his system.

On September 2,2014, shortly after pleading guilty to operating while intoxicated and being sentenced to one year of probation, Jim Irsay was suspended by the NFL for six games and fined $500,000.

Jim Irsay received a dose of Narcan, a medicine that reverses an opioid overdose.

In 2001 Jim Irsay purchased the original manuscript of On the Road, or "the scroll": a continuous, one hundred twenty-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets that Jack Kerouac cut to size and taped together, for $2.43 million.

Jim Irsay has purchased guitars originally owned by Elvis Presley, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jerry Garcia, Prince, Les Paul's 1954 Black Beauty and other notable performers.

Jim Irsay's purchases have set records: in 2014 he bought the electric guitar that Bob Dylan played at Newport for just under US$1 million and in 2017 he paid US$2.2 million for a Ludwig drum set belonging to Ringo Starr.

On June 20,2019, Jim Irsay paid a record $3.975 million for a guitar, known as The Black Strat, formerly owned by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.