Colts fan remembers Jim Irsay’s generous gift when he needed it most

INDIANAPOLIS — On Dec. 23, 2009, an Avon apartment complex burned to the ground.

Scott Sylvester, his wife and their 1-year-old son lost almost everything they owned. Scott wasn’t home at the time, but said his wife and son barely made it out alive.

”If the neighbors wouldn’t have knocked on the door, she would’ve been trapped on that side,” Scott said, pointing at a picture of rubble showing the aftermath of the apartment fire.

The young family of three had lost everything just two days before Christmas.

”It was a pretty bad experience,” Scott said. “You always hear about that stuff happening to other people and you don’t think it could happen to you, but when it does, it just kind of takes your breath away.”

The family had no idea who was about to help them, though. A week after the fire, Scott got a message that the Indianapolis Colts had something for him and his family.

Scott had been a Colts fan since the team moved to Indianapolis and a season ticket holder as an adult, but didn’t know what the message from his favorite team could possibly be about.

”It was basically an envelope and inside was a check from Mr. Irsay,” Scott said. “It was the first kind of aid or anything that we had gotten from anybody.”

The check-$1,000 with Jim Irsay’s signature on it – immediately went toward necessities the family needed.

”It just meant the world, because we had literally nothing to our name,” Scott said.

Never in his many Colts games or tailgates had Scott talked to Irsay before. To this day, he doesn’t know how Irsay heard about the fire. 

”I really have never really found out,” Scott said. “He’s like the Colts fairy, basically.”

Scott is confident he is one of many whom Irsay helped out privately, without a reporter or TV camera to hear about it.

“I think we probably only know of 5% of the stuff that he’s done for this city and state,” Scott said.

Scott called the news of Irsay’s death “devastating.” He never got a chance to thank the Colts’ longtime Owner and CEO, but he’s always known what he would say.

”I would just let him know that meant the world to my family and that’s why I’ll never ever not be a Colts fan,” he said. “They could be paying in Antarctica and I would always be a Colts fan.”

Scott said he’ll be at the first home game of the season on Sept. 7. He expects it to be an emotional one in honor of the man who loved this team the most.