🏈 NFL: 1944-2021
78 5
The Colts have competed as a member club of the NFL since their founding in Baltimore in 1953 after then-owner Carroll Rosenbloom purchased the assets of the NFL's last founding Ohio League member Day...
🏈 NCAAF: 1910-1930
21
🏀 NBA: 1968-2021
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The Pacers were first established in 1967 as a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and became a member of the NBA in 1976 as a result of the ABA–NBA merger. They play their home games ...
Defunct Teams
Teams that have folded or moved away from the Indiana area.F i l t e r & S o r t Filter & Sort
WHA: 1975-1979
5
The Indianapolis Racers were a major league hockey team in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1974 to 1978. They competed in four full seasons before folding 25 games into the 1978–79 season. The...
🏀 NBA: 1941-1957
17 5
The team was founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in 1941, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL), where it won two NBL championships: in 1944 and 1945. The Pisto...
🏀 NBA: 1950-1953
4
The Olympians were founded in 1949 to replace the Indianapolis Jets. The Olympians were led by University of Kentucky alumni Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, both of whom were key contributors on the gold ...
🏀 NPBL: 1946-1951
6 1
The Anderson Packers, also known as the Anderson Duffey Packers and the Chief Anderson Meat Packers, were a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana, in the 1940s and 1950s.
The team w...
🏀 BAA: 1933-1949
17 1
In 1931 Frank Kautsky, an Indianapolis grocer, formed a professional basketball team and named it the Indianapolis Kautskys. After playing in the Midwest Basketball Conference (1932–33) and the Nation...
⚾ NAL: 1946-1948
3
There is evidence indicating that the team was formed in Miami, Florida. Soon enough the team became an independent barnstorming club, changing its name to the Ethiopian Clowns. and evenually, the Cincinnati Clowns.
🏀 NBL: 1937-1941
5
The team was founded in 1936 in Whiting, Indiana as the Whiting Ciesar All-Americans, where they played in the Midwest Basketball Conference. They changed their name in for the 1938-39 season to the H...
⚾ NAL: 1940-1940
1
Members of the short-lived and mysterious USNL developed by Branch Rickey prior to integration of blacks in baseball.
⚾ NAL: 1939-1939
1
Founded as the Atlanta Cubs and changed their name to the Black Crackers because fans had already begun to call them by that name as a play on the local white league team, the Atlanta Crackers
⚾ NAL: 1938-1938
1
Hoping to revive the success of years past, the owners named the team the ABCs; the third such team to do so and the first in five years. Almost immediately, financial difficulties forced the team to relocate to St. Louis, and then New Orleans and Harrsiburgh before folding in 1943
🏀 NBL: 1937-1938
2 1
The General Electrics was set up as a corporate industrial team owned by the General Electric cooperation. The goal of the team was to use the games as a means of advertising for their products, and t...
🏀 MBC: 1936-1937
2
Indianapolis U.S. Tires played for 2 seasons from 1936 to 1937, several in the MBC, before folding....
⚾ NNL: 1933-1933
1
From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the most dominant team in black baseball. Evolved from the split of the Chicago Union Leland Giants into the Chicago Giants and Chicago American Giants.
🏀 NPBL2: 1926-1933
8 1
The Fort Wayne Hoosiers (originally the Fort Wayne Caseys) were an American basketball team based in Fort Wayne, Indiana that was a member of the American Basketball League....
⚾ NSL: 1931-1932
2
Five years after the demise of the original Indianapolis ABCs, Negro league baseball came back to Indianapolis. Within a few years the Cole's American Giants moved their 1933 home games to Indianapolis, forcing the ABCs move the club to Detroit shortly after opening day.
⚾ NNL1: 1907-1926
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Originally organized by the American Brewing Company in the early 20th century. By 1915, the ABCs were already challenging Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants for supremacy in black baseball.
🏈 NFL: 1920-1926
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The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner of a racing stable, also served as doctor/trainer (and part-owner) for a semi-pro foo...
⚾ Negro: 1916-1922
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Negro league team that split off from the Indianapolis ABCs during an ownership dispute
🏈 NFL: 1921-1922
2
The Evansville Crimson Giants were a professional American football team based in Evansville, Indiana and were a part of the National Football League in 1921 and 1922. The Giants home games were playe...
🏈 NFL: 1920-1921
2
The Muncie Flyers, known as the Congerville Flyers for most of their existence, were a professional American football team from Muncie, Indiana, that played from 1905 to 1926. The Flyers were an indep...
⚾ Negro: 1910-1915
6
They often frequented baseball diamonds near the West Baden Springs Hotel. Their name derived from a bottled water produced at the Hotel which bordered on a local salt lick and mineral spring. The product was labeled as "Sprudel Water"
⚾ Negro: 1912-1914
3
Based at the French Lick Springs Hotel in Indiana, and their name derived from a bottled water produced at the Hotel. The Hotel bordered on a local salt lick and mineral spring and the minerals from the spring made the water act as an effective and marketable natural laxative.
⚾ FL: 1913-1914
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Relocated from Indiana to New Jersey for marketing purposes by league executives after winning the 1914 championship.
Disbanded when the Federal League folded after the 1915 season.
⚾ NL: 1887-1889
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Only team to continue after the Union Associaton folded in 1884, joining the National League in 1885. Left St. Louis for Indianapolis to begin the 1887 season. Folded following the 1889 season.
The early history of sports contains hundreds of teams that appeared for only 1 or 2 seasons before folding. Most of these teams have no historical photographs or articles, so are omitted from this list to reduce clutter. To view a comprehensive list of all defunct teams, browse to the early leagues section for baseball, football, basketball, or hockey.