James Irsay

Jim Irsay, the straight-shooting, hard-living, football-loving owner and chief executive of the Indianapolis Colts who spent his entire adult life around the team that his father bought more than a half-century ago, died on Wednesday May 21 2025 in Los Angeles. He was 65. James Steven Irsay was born on June 13, 1959, in Lincolnwood, Ill., north of Chicago. His father owned a heating and air-conditioning business. Jim’s mother, Harriet Pogorzelski, managed the home. Although Robert Irsay was Jewish, Jim was raised Catholic, his mother’s religion. He is survived by three daughters, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson, and by seven grandchildren. His brother, Thomas, was born with a mental disability and died in 1999. His sister, Roberta, died in a car crash in 1971 at age 15. His marriage to Margaret Mary Coyle ended in divorce in 2013. Robert Irsay died in January 1997, and later that year Jim Irsay, then 37, became sole owner of the team and the youngest sole owner in the N.F.L. Nine straight playoff appearances helped push the value of his Indianapolis Colts football team to $1 billion. Colts lost Super Bowl in 2010 to New Orleans Saints; won in 2007 against Chicago Bears. Music fan and collector owns guitars of Jerry Garcia, George Harrison and Elvis Presley; letters from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Paid $2.4 million for the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" in 2001. "I think my destiny was to be that wizard behind the curtain more than anything. I think I have a pretty good idea of how to show people how to have a good time and let them experience things."