Cross & Crescent

The last time the Colts were in the Super Bowl, the franchise was in Baltimore, Maryland, not Indianapolis, Indiana, the quarterback was Johnny Unitas not Peyton Manning, and the kicker wasn’t Adam Vinatieri but Jim O’Brien (Cincinnati 1970).

In fact the only similarity between the two Super Bowl Colt teams is that the big game is being played in Miami, Florida.

The Colts’ move from Baltimore to Indianapolis is one of the most documented stories in sports, but O’Brien believes it is taken a little overboard.

“I just think it would have been better for us if the Colts logo was left in Baltimore because it leaves us as men without a team,” says O’Brien. “But I still root for the Colts to win; they still have a horseshoe on the helmet.”

O’Brien just hopes that his Colts successful Super Bowl will carry over to this year’s team.

The Lead In

O’Brien had gone to the U.S. Air Force Academy Prep School and thought he was going to play basketball there. Unfortunately, he developed an ulcer that wasn’t getting better.

“They gave me an option: I could either leave the academy with a medical discharge, or they could take half my stomach out and then I could go into the regular service,” he says.

O’Brien chose to leave and enrolled mid-year at the University of Cincinnati. He received a partial basketball scholarship for the rest of the year. He soon realized that his (lack of) height was too big a disadvantage, so he switched to football.

The next fall, he walked onto the football team. He did really well the first season and earned a scholarship the next year playing receiver and kicker. The team enjoyed offensive success led by future pro quarterback Greg Cook.

“Greg was one of the first of the big kids. He and Terry Bradshaw were the first big quarterbacks,” explains O’Brien.

Turning Pro

Following college, O’Brien was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the third round of the 1970 NFL draft. His rookie year, he barely made the team.

“I think the only reason I made the cut was that I not only had good distance on my kicks, I also played wide receiver,” says O’Brien. “They saved a roster spot because I could do two things, even though I was a back-up receiver.”

Coming in as a rookie and being on a team with Johnny Unitas, Earl Morall, Ted Hendricks, Billy Ray Smith, and John Sandusky, gave him a little shock and awe.

“It’s quite a thrill to say that you played with Unitas. I was in awe the first week there,” says O’Brien. “But then you’re out there twice a day and you’re so darn tired that you don’t care about awe any more.”

O’Brien believes that any time you get a group of people that live and die together it becomes like a fraternity. In that sense, football was very fraternal.

“You like some guys, but you don’t care for others,” explains O’Brien. “You know that you may not hang around with them, but you know that you do rely on them and they rely on you.”

O’Brien played three years with Baltimore and was then traded to the Detroit Lions. He played there a year, then an off-season eye injury forced him from the game.

Super Bowl V

In his rookie season with the Colts, O’Brien had the opportunity to play in Super Bowl V. The game was held in Miami, Florida, on January 17, 1971, and was being played on AstroTurf, which was new and not nearly as common as it is today.

“I had kicked on AstroTurf, but just didn’t like kicking on it,” he says.

O’Brien was a straight-on kicker or toe puncher. So for the game, he took his front cleat and sawed it down to the metal stub so that it was exposed.

“When kicking on grass, it’s almost like golf, where you almost take a divot,” explains O’Brien. “In our day, our fields were so worn by the middle of November that I called it AstroDirt. If it rained, you were really in trouble because then it was just mud.”

O’Brien says that Super Bowl V happened before Hollywood and advertisers got a hold of it.

“You wanted to get to it because it was the championship game, but the Super Bowl wasn’t quite the deal it is today,” explains O’Brien. “Tickets were $15 and the first few Super Bowls didn’t even sell out.”

Early in the game, Dallas kicked two field goals and took the lead 6-0. In the second quarter, Baltimore got into the end zone, but O’Brien’s extra point was blocked.

“I was nervous out there and didn’t put it on automatic,” says O’Brien. “I was a little slow and the guy got in and blocked it.”

Both teams would score another touchdown, tying the game in the closing minutes. With nine seconds left in the game, O’Brien lined up for the game-winning 32-yard field goal.

“During the kick I concentrated really, really well. I didn’t think about other things and what-ifs. I just went on automatic,” says O’Brien, “I don’t remember hearing any noise. I don’t remember seeing Earl Morall, who was the holder. There was no sound. I didn’t even see the ground, all I saw was the ball.”

Following the successful kick, O’Brien had to kick off to Dallas and time expired. The Colts had won Super Bowl V.

Building a New Career

After leaving football, O’Brien took a job with Pony Sporting Goods based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He quickly decided that sales was not for him and realized his interest was in construction.

“My stepfather was an industrial arts teacher and I was probably the only kid in college prep classes that took shop classes, too. I had learned some engineering, construction, and how to use tools.”

His wife’s father was a builder, so he began working for him and built numerous things around Minneapolis, Minnesota, and learned the trade. About three years later he decided to move out to California for the warm weather.

He has been in California ever since, holding numerous positions in different real estate development companies. He has most often worked as a project manager or vice president.

Currently, O’Brien is a project manager for Trimark Pacifica. He is building an 82-unit loft project in Long Beach, California, and a 48-unit single family housing project in Monterey Park, California, with each unit having an elevator.

Fraternity

When O’Brien started his freshman year in January of 1967, he and a couple of his high school friends looked around at all the different fraternities. They chose to go with Lambda Chi, in part because of its connections to athletics.

“The house didn’t have all the athletes, but they had a good number of the swimmers, some basketball players, one football player, and some in other sports.”

O’Brien says he enjoyed the experience throughout his entire college career. He admits that he didn’t get to participate in a lot of the activities because of football, and his late decision to switch from pre-med to economics.

“I was taking a lot of hours every quarter, so that diminished some of the social life that I would have had. Plus, I never really got to live in the house,” says O’Brien.

One attribute O’Brien did take from his fraternity days was time management. He points out that the fraternity brothers would give their time to do different charity work and have social events, while still maintaining their academics.

“To be able to work your schedule and make sure that you obviously get your social life done but also get your academics and your casual time, takes a lot of discipline.”