Quarterback Chris Chandler can still feel the crowd’s vengeance Halloween night of 1988.

John Elway was in their house – the guy who had refused to play for the Colts when he was the No. 1 pick out of Stanford in 1983 by Robert Irsay in Baltimore.

The Colts were in Indianapolis now, but fans were happy to let the bitterness carry right over into their city. The Denver Broncos quarterback was, evidently, too good for the Colts.

“The fact it was Denver, man,” Chandler said. “That just brought the feelings.”

Pete Ward can still hear the deafening noise inside the Hoosier Dome.

Millions of people were watching Indianapolis on the national football stage for the first time. These fans would show the world it had what it takes to be an NFL city. They weren’t just some basketball-obsessed, hoops-on-every-barn crowd.

“For years football fans in Indiana were on the outside looking in,” said Ward, who in 1988 was director of operations for the Colts. “Not anymore. The crowd was juiced is the way I would put it.”

Wide receiver Bill Brooks can still remember the disbelief as Eric Dickerson went bananas in that game against the two-time defending AFC champions. It was the running back's 1-year anniversary of being traded to the Colts from the Los Angeles Rams.

He gave the team an anniversary present, rushing 21 times for 159 yards and four touchdowns.

"We won that game pretty well," said Brooks. "Eric just had a crazy game."

Thirty years ago, Oct. 31, 1988, Monday Night Football shined its magnificent light on the Indianapolis Colts for the first time. It was the first nationally televised game for the Colts in its five seasons in Indy.

The ABC team showed up, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf, Al Michaels. The big cameras showed up, setting up shots all over Indianapolis.

The Colts showed up. They trounced Denver 55-23.

It was as if everything came together in one glorious moment, the crowd donning masks of Gifford, Dierdorf and Michaels, electrifyingly rowdy. The 55 points were a record for Monday Night Football. The four touchdowns by Dickerson tied another mark.

“The momentum we got off that crowd was amazing," said Chandler. "It felt like we were riding this huge wave that was just going to crash down on the Broncos — and it did.”

The biggest stage

One of Ward's duties in 1988 was game staging. Having Monday Night Football in Indianapolis was such a big deal to the city that there were weekly planning meetings for months leading up to that Halloween night.

"It was the biggest show on TV," said Ward, now chief operating officer with the Colts. "It was the one night each week where the entire nation would sit down, throw parties and watch a game."

The Colts wanted to make it something the fans — and the nation — wouldn't forget. During one of those planning meetings, the idea was crafted to have masks of the ABC talent sitting on each seat at the Hoosier Dome for fans to wear.

The network loved the idea, said Ward, and really got into it. They planned to have the PA announcer cue the fans to put the masks on at a certain time. Cameras then scanned the crowds live of people going wild, donning those masks.

"The Dome was electric," Colts owner Jim Irsay, who declined an IndyStar interview, recently tweeted about the game. "That was back when the entire nation would huddle around their televisions every Monday night for the game of the week. An American institution."

Earlier that Monday, the broadcasters had been at a luncheon open to the public that swiftly sold out.

"In the 1980s, Monday Night Football was the premier stage," said Dom Caristi, professor of telecommunications at Ball State University. "You didn't have Sunday night or Thursday night football."

That kind of attention was a huge deal, he said. And there was an unmistakable energy inside the Hoosier Dome.

"That energy was picked up by the players," said Ward, "and the Broncos never had a chance that night."

'Thankful to win'

The Colts' take down of the Broncos could have been even more dramatic — if only Dickerson had stayed in the game.

As the teams headed off to the locker room at halftime, the Colts led 45-10. Dickerson had 124 yards and all of his touchdowns on 18 carries by then.

"You have those days,'' Dickerson told IndyStar in 2007. "Everything was perfect. You don't know why it happens like that, but everything you do just works. Every call you make works. Every play you run works. Everything is just perfect."

But when the third quarter started, Dickerson played on the first series and then — much to the dismay of Colts fans — headed to the bench.

There has been some dispute as to who made the decision to take Dickerson out.

IndyStar reported, "Coach Ron Meyer kept the Broncos from being totally humiliated on national TV by pulling in the reins in the second half. He sat starting quarterback Chris Chandler and had backup Gary Hogeboom run the wishbone."

In the locker room after the game, however, Dickerson said it was his choice.

"(Meyer) asked me if I wanted to keep playing and I said no,'' he told reporters. "I don't like to run up the score on people just to get yards. I felt I had a chance to get 200 yards, but it can come some other day.''

In 2007, Dickerson recalled it differently.

"I wish I had stayed in the game, but Ron wouldn't allow it,'' he said. "I could have rushed for at least 350 yards. I asked Ron to put me back in. He was like, 'No, no, no. You've done enough.'''

Those details didn't really matter then — and they definitely don't now, said David Singerer, who attended that 1988 game and called it "almost embarrassing for the Broncos."

“We just hated Elway so much and I would have given anything before that game to beat the brat,” he said. “And then it was like the heavens opened up and we could do no wrong. And Elway was just put in his place.”

Fans now don't understand why that Monday night game would have been so magical, said Singerer. They're used to the Colts on national television. They've grown accustomed to big broadcasts from Lucas Oil Stadium.

But many things have changed for Colts fans in the last three decades, said Brooks.

"It is totally different than it was back in 1988," he said. "People were excited about the game of football. That's all they had. Right now, they are excited about the team, how successful the team has been."

But on that Halloween night in 1988, the Colts were as successful as any team in the NFL.

"The whole country got to see the Colts on TV and get a glimpse of Indianapolis and the fans and see how excited they were about football," said Chandler. "We were just thankful we could go out there and win the football game."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow and Facebook. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.