Manny Randhawa

Manny.Randhawa@indystar.com

“It doesn’t seem like it’s been 20 years. It was the funnest year of playing football of my life.”

Jim Harbaugh remembers it like it was yesterday.

“What happened was amazing,” he says. “Throughout the course of the season for all of us, we became a real team.”

That team was the 1995 Indianapolis Colts. The franchise was entering its 12th season in Indianapolis after relocating from Baltimore, and the direction in which it was headed was uncertain.

The Colts, beginning their fourth year under coach Ted Marchibroda, were coming off an 8-8 season, preceded by a 4-12 campaign. The franchise’s only playoff appearance since moving to Indianapolis had been in the strike-shortened 1987 season and ended with a loss to the Cleveland Browns in the first round.

But 1995 would be a special year for the Colts and the city of Indianapolis, a season filled with stirring comebacks and an improbable playoff run that would include one of the greatest AFC Championship games.

Peyton Manning, deservedly, gets much of the credit for establishing football in Indianapolis. But the city's passion for football began in 1995.

“I think we were the jump-start to an organization headed in the right direction,” says Zack Crockett, then a rookie fullback. “And then from all the negative things we heard about the team leaving Baltimore and all that, this was something to wash all that away and have a fresh beginning.”

Training camp

The Colts had several questions to answer entering training camp in August 1995, not the least of which was who would be the starting quarterback.

Indianapolis had traded a future first-round draft pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Craig Erickson that offseason, casting doubt on whether the 31-year-old Harbaugh – who had started nine games for the Colts in 1994 – would be the No. 1 quarterback again. Despite his 61.9 percent completion rate and 85.8 passer rating in ’94, Indianapolis was 4-5 with Harbaugh starting.

Harbaugh had come to the Colts after seven seasons with the Bears, the team that drafted him in the first round (26th overall) out of Michigan in 1987 while Bill Tobin – Colts general manager in 1995 – was director of player personnel for Chicago. Harbaugh led Chicago to a division title and a wild-card berth before a disastrous ’92 season (5-11) and mediocre ’93 campaign (7-9) led Chicago to waive him.

“You don’t see that anymore," Crockett said of having a high-quality backup quarterback. "To watch that in training camp, those two guys compete, it was unreal.”

Without a clear-cut leader on offense and with a team that had vacillated between mediocrity and moderate success, the Colts were undefined as a unit.

They would find that identity, in part, behind an offense that was undergoing a schematic transformation under new offensive coordinator Lindy Infante.

“(Infante) was just enhancing your football IQ," receiver Aaron Bailey says. "The receivers were responsible for making the correct read with the quarterback. We had to know the defensive front, just everything. We had to know different kinds of routes depending on what kind of blitz they came at us with; one route could morph into two other routes. It was kind of cool in a way.”

When the Colts broke camp, Marchibroda had settled on Erickson as the starting quarterback. But Marchibroda’s decision would soon be tested.

Early-season momentum

The Colts lost their season opener to the Bengals in the RCA Dome, 24-21 in overtime. Erickson was 19-of-31 for 196 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. He was replaced in the fourth quarter by Harbaugh, who led a game-tying drive to force overtime.

In Week 2, Erickson was again the starter. But with Indianapolis down to the Jets 24-3 in the third quarter, Marchibroda again turned to Harbaugh. After the Colts recovered a fumble for a touchdown, Harbaugh tossed two touchdown passes to bring Indianapolis all the way back, forcing another overtime. Harbaugh led a game-winning drive that ended in a Mike Cofer 52-yard field goal for a 27-24 win.

Marchibroda made Harbaugh the starting quarterback.

“I think it’s another life lesson there,” Harbaugh says. “It’s better to be prepared and your opportunity does not come than to not be prepared and have your opportunity come.”

The Colts lost in Week 3 at Buffalo i20-14 and after a bye week beat the Rams at home 21-18. Then came a game those Colts squad remember as a key marker in their development as a team capable of big things.

“Yeah, that was Oct. 8, 1995,” Bailey says. “I remember because that was my first NFL touchdown.”

Trailing the Dolphins 24-3 at halftime in Miami, Harbaugh worked his comeback magic again, throwing three touchdown passes – the final one a 21-yard strike to Bailey – to pull Indianapolis even late in the fourth quarter. In overtime again, Harbaugh led a 57-yard drive that ended in a 27-yard Cary Blanchard field goal.

“Certainly the Miami game,” Harbaugh says when thinking back on the key moments of that season. “We were gaining confidence as players in ourselves and everybody’s abilities. Week after week it’s a new guy that’s shining and winning us the game.”

That day at Joe Robbie Stadium, Harbaugh heard himself called “Captain Comeback,” a nickname previously given to Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach.

“I liked it,” he says with a chuckle. “Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t anybody? Who wouldn’t?”

The Miami win was followed by a stunning 18-17 victory over the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers in Indianapolis.

“A lot of people use (the word) ‘culture,’ but the attitude, everybody was team-first,” says Harbaugh. “From the front office, together with the coaches, together with the ownership, together with the players, the equipment staff, the training staff, I mean it felt like we were family.”

The 64-year-old Marchibroda was in his fourth decade of coaching in the NFL, and he knew how to get the most out of his players.

“Coach Marchibroda was like a calming effect over the team,” Bailey says. “He was always cool. He was a great motivator, a great listener, a great teacher.”

Infante’s offensive schemes were working with Harbaugh, a scrambling quarterback who could improvise on the go.

“He was an offensive genius,” says Harbaugh. “Week after week, you could count on seven wide-open throws a game, just the way he was scheming it – 15 yards-plus kind of completions. It was artful.”

Things were coming together defensively as well under coordinator Vince Tobin. In the victory over San Francisco, the Colts held an offense led by reigning league Most Valuable Player Steve Young to 269 yards.

Midseason adversity

The Colts hit a rough stretch after the win over San Francisco, losing three of their next four games. But Harbaugh got the Colts rolling again with wins over the Patriots and Dolphins.

In Week 13, Harbaugh outdueled Dan Marino. Harbaugh threw for 180 yards and three touchdowns, one to second-year running back Marshall Faulk, who had 133 all-purpose yards. The Colts built a 24-0 lead and held off a late Miami charge for a 36-28 win.

The next week, Harbaugh was sacked six times by the Carolina Panthers and sustained a knee injury that forced him out of the game in the third quarter. Indianapolis lost 13-10, but of more concern was Harbaugh’s condition – he would need arthroscopic surgery and it was uncertain how long he would be out of action.

Erickson would reprise his starter role in Week 15 and help lift Indianapolis to a road victory over the Jaguars. Bailey was the catalyst, taking the game’s opening kickoff and returning it 95 yards for a touchdown, then scoring on a 14-yard touchdown reception to put Indianapolis up 14-0. The Colts held off Jacksonville for a 41-31 victory that pushed their record to 8-6.

Harbaugh was back for the following week’s game against San Diego after having surgery to remove damaged cartilage from his right knee.

“Jim was getting knocked out and he’s staggering on the field almost like in a boxing match,” says Crockett. “When you see a guy that lays it on the line like Jim did, you as a player, you have no excuse. None. You just go out and say: ‘I’m gonna give my all just like he did.’ ”

Entering Week 16, the Colts were in position to clinch a playoff berth for the first time in eight years and the second time since moving to Indianapolis in 1984, but they lost 27-24 to San Diego. The Colts would go into the final game of the regular season with a postseason berth in the balance.

In a nationally televised Sunday night game at the RCA Dome, the Colts intercepted New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe three times, and 157 all-purpose yards from backup running back Lamont Warren resulted in a 10-7 Colts win, securing a wild-card berth.

Harbaugh, in his ninth pro season, earned his first Pro Bowl selection and was named Comeback Player of the Year. He led the NFL with a 100.7 passer rating while throwing 17 touchdown passes and a league-low five interceptions. His three fourth-quarter comeback wins also led the league.

Nothing to lose

In the playoffs, the Colts would face the team they played just 14 days earlier: the San Diego Chargers.

“Going into San Diego, we were double-digit underdogs,” Harbaugh recalls (it was actually 5½ points, according to pro-football-reference.com). “We felt like we had nothing to lose, but yet, we’re gonna win.”

Faulk – selected for the Pro Bowl after rushing for 1,078 yards and 11 touchdowns – left the game after his first carry – a 16-yard gain. He had re-injured his left knee, suffering from loose cartilage. With Faulk and starting fullback Roosevelt Potts out with injuries, it was up to Warren and Crockett to carry the rushing load.

Crockett had only one NFL rushing attempt for no gain to that point.

“During pregame warm-ups, the general manager, Bill Tobin, came to me,” says Crockett, “and we talk to this day about this – he tapped me on my shoulder and said, ‘We need you today.’”

By the end of the game, Crockett had rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries.

In the fourth quarter, with Indianapolis clinging to a 21-20 lead, Crockett broke the Colts’ all-time playoff record for longest rushing play, eclipsing Tom Matte’s 58-yard run in the 1969 Super Bowl. Crockett’s 66-yard run for his second touchdown would be enough for the Colts to advance to the divisional round.

“Once I got past (Chargers linebacker) Junior (Seau) after the cutback, I saw daylight and I knew no one was gonna catch me with the speed that I had,” Crockett says.

The moment encapsulated what the Colts had been doing all season: relying on someone new every week to come up with a big play.

“You couldn’t ask for a better stage than that as a rookie, having a lot of snaps behind a Hall of Famer like Marshall Faulk in practice,” says Crockett. “And yeah, I only had one carry during the season, but look at who I was behind. I was over-prepared for that game.”

The Indianapolis defense was also key, intercepting Stan Humphries four times, two by free safety Jason Belser. The Colts went on to win 35-20 for the franchise’s first playoff victory since 1971. It set up a matchup with Super Bowl favorite Kansas City.

Kids in a candy store

The Kansas City Chiefs owned the best record in the NFL (13-3) and the league’s top-ranked defense. They also hadn’t lost at home.

“(Everybody was) talking about Kansas City and who they were gonna play (in the next round),” says Bailey. “Of course they looked past us.”

“No, I really don’t think we were looking past them,” says Greg Manusky, a linebacker on that '95 Chiefs squad and formerly the Colts' defensive coordinator. “We were giddied up and really excited to play the Colts. It wasn’t like we were looking at who we were gonna play in the next game.”

Sunday, Jan. 7, 1996 was a frigid day in Kansas City. The temperature at kickoff was zero with a wind chill of 15 below. The field turf, particularly on the sidelines, was hard as ice. For a team that played its home games in a domed stadium, it didn’t bode well for Indianapolis.

“It was so cold, you wanted something to warm you up, so you took hot apple cider to the field,” Crockett says. “It was frozen by the time you got to the middle of the field. Guys like me from Florida, we’re like, ‘OK, we’re gonna be tough.’ I had no sleeves on with the Vaseline on the arms and then the shade came over the field by halftime. I literally almost froze to death.”

Facing the league’s No. 1 rushing offense, the Colts defense proved to be the difference. Chiefs running back Marcus Allen rushed for 94 yards but did not get into the end zone, and Kansas City quarterback Steve Bono was intercepted three times.

With the weather conditions, Harbaugh wasn’t very effective through the air – completing 12-of-27 passes for 112 yards — but he managed 48 yards on the ground, keeping drives alive when Kansas City’s defense flushed him out of the pocket.

“We called it plastering – you’ve gotta plaster on the back end and that’s what we had to do that day with Harbaugh,” Manusky says. “And I think he found a couple openings. With the conditions that we had and even though we had Neil Smith, Derek Thomas and Dan Saleaumua, we just didn’t have an opportunity to get to him.”

A 7-7 contest at halftime, a Blanchard field goal in the third quarter would decide it. The Chiefs' Lin Elliott missed three field goals, including a 42-yarder that would have tied the score late in the fourth quarter.

“They had a last-second field goal try and they end up missing it, and I remember nudging one of my best friends to this day, (wide receiver) Bobby Olive, and we went crazy,” says Bailey. “We were like little kids in a candy store, running and jumping around, hugging each other.”

“You were just like, ‘When is this fairy tale gonna be over?’ ” Crockett says.

Next up would be the Pittsburgh Steelers for the right to play in the Super Bowl. But first, a homecoming.

A football city is born

“I moved here from Chicago in ’93 and we’d go to Colts games because there were tickets everywhere,” says Kent Sterling, assistant program director of Indianapolis radio station WIBC in 1996. “And when there was a touchdown and you’d stand up and cheer for the Colts, you’d have a lady two rows behind you yelling at you to sit down. That’s kind of the way this place was.”

After the Colts upset the Chiefs in Kansas City, the team was welcomed home by a crush of fans at the Indianapolis airport.

While many became aware of Indianapolis as a football town after Peyton Manning became the Colts’ quarterback in 1998 and the team became a perennial playoff contender, Bailey says it began before that.

“You’ve gotta think about it. Indianapolis was a basketball city,” Bailey says. “You fast-forward to right now: It’s kind of split. It was flattering to see that 12th man – that’s when they were born, that ’95 season."

“When people lined up with banners and signs, we felt like rock stars coming back home that day,” says Crockett. “Everyone knew who you were. Imagine if we had social media like we have now; it would’ve been unreal.”

‘We’re the hot team’

The Steelers were on a mission to reach the Super Bowl after coming up 3 yards short the season prior against the Chargers, and the Colts were coming in riding a wave of underdog momentum.

“(Marchibroda’s message was:) ‘Everyone’s counting us out. We believe,’ ” Bailey remembers. “‘The guys here in this locker room believe. The people in Indianapolis believe. You play for them. You play for your brothers here in this locker room. We’re the hot team.’”

A Neil O’Donnell touchdown pass to Kordell Stewart with 13 seconds left in the second quarter gave Pittsburgh a 10-6 lead going into halftime. Television replays showed Stewart stepped out of bounds and came back into the end zone to make the catch, but the penalty wasn't called.

After the teams traded field goals, Harbaugh, beginning at the Colts’ 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter, threw three straight completions followed by a 47-yard touchdown pass to Floyd Turner to put Indianapolis ahead with 8:46 remaining in the game. With the Colts up 16-13, the Three Rivers Stadium crowd was stunned.

“It was definitely an emotional roller coaster, from your heart racing to your heart pounding when you’re kinda worried, to you’re excited,” says Bailey.

Indianapolis had a third-and-1 at its own 31 with 3:57 to go. A first down would keep alive a drive that could eat enough clock to seal a trip to the Super Bowl. But blitzing Steelers cornerback Willie Williams swept in from the right side and grabbed Warren’s ankle to bring him down short of a first down.

“If he wouldn’t have gotten an ankle tackle right there, man … the game was over,” Crockett says. “Game was over.”

The Colts were forced to punt. On the third play of the next Pittsburgh drive, O’Donnell threw a short pass intended for wide receiver Ernie Mills that Quentin Coryatt almost intercepted.

“(Coryatt) started running and at the last second, this guy comes in and punches the ball out of his arm,” remembers Bailey.

Following another incomplete pass, it was fourth-and-3. A stop here, and the Colts would have the football, 2 minutes away from Super Bowl XXX.

But O’Donnell completed a pass over the middle to Andre Hastings for 9 yards.

The next play was a 37-yard completion to Mills to the 1, and running back Bam Morris took it in from there to give Pittsburgh a 20-16 lead with 1:34 to play.

The Colts began their final drive of the game at their own 16. With 88 seconds to go 84 yards, “Captain Comeback” went to work.

“It was just all in the moment,” Harbaugh says. “And you just trusted your teammates and had great confidence that they would make the appropriate play, finish their assignment, do their job.”

Harbaugh was forced out of the pocket on first down and threw the ball away.

Eighty-two seconds left.

On second down, Harbaugh completed a 7-yard pass to Warren to the 23.

Seventy-four seconds.

On third-and-3, Harbaugh completed an 18-yard pass over the middle to Turner to the 41.

Sixty-six seconds.

Harbaugh couldn’t find an open receiver on the next play, and ran for 8 yards.

Timeout with 39 seconds left.

On second down, Harbaugh threw over the middle for Turner again, but it went in and out of the hands of Steelers defensive back Chris Oldham. Harbaugh was slow getting up after taking a shot from Pittsburgh defensive end Brentson Buckner.

Bleeding from his right hand, Harbaugh threw his next pass incomplete for Warren, bringing up fourth-and-2.

Twenty-eight seconds.

Harbaugh found wide receiver Sean Dawkins, who went out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 38 for a first down.

Twenty-one seconds.

Harbaugh was immediately pressured by the Steelers’ pass rush on the next play and scrambled to the 29. With no timeouts, he hurried everyone to the line of scrimmage and spiked the ball to stop the clock.

Five seconds. One shot at the end zone. One shot at the Super Bowl.

Everything in slow motion

The Colts ran the Hail Mary during Friday practices each week.

“There was nothing that I could remember (in the huddle) that was any different than: Here’s the play, and you trust that everybody’s going to do what they’re supposed to do,” Harbaugh says. “Without even thinking that they wouldn’t. Just trust and knowing that they would.”

“We’d been in close games most of the season,” says Bailey. “So it was just like business as usual; we’re gonna go down here, we’re gonna make a play and we’re gonna score.”

As Harbaugh walked up to the line of scrimmage, he had only one thing on his mind.

“I just kept telling myself: 'Hit a spot, hit a spot 5 yards deep in the end zone and don’t throw it out of the end zone,' ” Harbaugh recalls. “Whatever you do, don’t throw it out of the end zone.”

As he jogged out to the right side as part of a triple-right formation for the Colts, Bailey was talking to himself, too.

“Brian Stablein, he was on my side; it was Brian, Floyd Turner and myself,” Bailey says. “Brian was always the tip guy because with his vertical he could jump up and tip the ball in the air or just jump up and catch the ball.

“And Floyd and I were the ones that were gonna catch the tip. I distinctly remember running down and thinking, 'I’ve gotta get down here, I’ve gotta get down here, I’ve gotta get down here and get into position.' ”

Harbaugh took the snap, dropped back, paused, and lofted the ball into the air.

“I turn around and I see the ball coming,” says Bailey. “And it’s coming right to me. And your whole thought process is: I hope we can keep it inbounds. And as the ball was coming down, we started jostling for position.

“So I’m feeling guys tugging on my arms, I’m feeling guys trying to pull me down. I’m feeling guys grabbing the back of my jersey. You’re shaking yourself loose through all this stuff, and then all at once, you jump up.”

The ball was tipped and juggled between Bailey and multiple Steelers defenders. When Bailey fell to the ground, NBC television commentator Phil Simms yelled out: "He caught it! He caught it!”

Bailey stood up and with the football in his left hand, raised both hands in the air.

“We were always taught: Make the ref make a decision,” Bailey says. “You go up, you put the ball in the air. The ref says no, he saw it. And that was the end of the game.”

The referees ruled the ball had hit the ground. It was all over. The Steelers were going to the Super Bowl.

“I thought it was a catch,” says Crockett. “I immediately just thought, 'I’m going to the Super Bowl!' ”

Harbaugh, from his vantage point, saw the officials signal incomplete pass and looked up at the stadium’s big screen for a replay.

“The first angle, (I thought) 'Oh, it looked like he caught it,' ” says Harbaugh. “The second one: 'Oh, he looked like he caught it.' The third one: 'Aaah, it probably hit the ground.' ”

“All this is going on in my head – this is happening in real time, but I’m seeing everything in slow motion,” Bailey says. “Of course, they’ll show it on TV in super-slow motion – ‘Oh, the ball’s on his stomach!’

“It’s like catching a speeding bullet. It was tucked in between my arm – half the ball’s on my arm and half the ball is on the ground. It’s almost like you’re in a dream. You’re trying to grab something, but you just can’t get it.”

Harbaugh watched a replay of the telecast the following week. Bailey didn’t.

Harbaugh would reach the Super Bowl, but not as a player. Eighteen years after that Hail Mary, he coached the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl, losing 34-31 to the Baltimore Ravens.

“Even that day,” Harbaugh says of the 1995 AFC Championship Game, “you’re walking off the field going, ‘There will be other days.’ As a player, it turned out that was the only one. That was as close as we got. Would’ve liked to, and didn’t. Facts are stubborn things. And that’s a fact.”

Legacy

In February 1996, Marchibroda’s contract was not renewed and Infante was named the new head coach. The Colts went 9-7 and returned to the playoffs, losing to the Steelers in the wild-card game. In 1997, with several key members of the ’95 team now gone, Indianapolis started the season 0-10 and finished 3-13.

That result gave the Colts the No. 1 selection in the 1998 NFL draft, with which they picked Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning.

Manning would lead the franchise to 11 playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title in 13 seasons, making the Colts a perennial power in the AFC.

Colts owner Jim Irsay fired Tobin after the 1997 season, bringing in Bill Polian as president. But while the Colts lost 13 of their last 21 games on his watch, Tobin was the architect of a team that was inches away from reaching the Super Bowl in 1996.

“If you really studied it, the job Bill Tobin did, putting that team together, and it wasn’t just, ‘Here are a bunch of high draft picks,’ ” says Harbaugh. “There were high draft picks that were good, and there were guys like myself who were off the scrap heap. Just every piece on the board was like a chess piece. How about putting that roster together and it worked for what not too many years before was a 4-12 team?”

Harbaugh would spend the 1998 season with the Ravens, reunited with Marchibroda, who was now coaching Baltimore. Harbaugh finished out his playing career with the Chargers in 1999 and 2000.

“Everybody’s football career comes to an end,” Harbaugh says. “I mean, very few guys play their best football right up to their very last day and then retire. I take pride that I was replaced by Peyton Manning. That’s pretty darn good. How does it get better than that?”

Harbaugh and Bailey will forever be linked with the final play of the 1995 AFC Championship Game.

“Being back in Ann Arbor now (coaching Michigan football), there are a lot of people that know Aaron Bailey (who grew up in Ann Arbor),” Harbaugh says. “It comes up a lot.”

But both remember that season more for what was than what could have been.

“It was a heck of a time,” says Harbaugh. “It was a rare thing. And it was great to be a part of it.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Manny Randhawa on Twitter: @MannyRsports.

1995 Indianapolis Colts Schedule