Indianapolis recalls charitable side of Jim Irsay

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the late Jim Irsay's name is added to the Colts Ring of Honor at Lucas Oil Stadium during the team's season opener against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, his role as one of the leading owners of the NFL will be recalled.




But more importantly, to the people and organizations of his hometown, Irsay will be remembered as a compassionate, committed neighbor whose largesse made life easier for countless Hoosiers in need.




"We matter to him and therefore he mattered to us," said Sandy Jeffers, the director of Pathway to Recovery.




Irsay's self-acknowledged battles with addiction were well known, as typified by the Colts' "Kicking the Stigma" campaign to encourage conversations and solutions regarding mental health.




"His struggles and bringing his issues out of the shadows really show how dramatic a problem this is and how we have such few resources to fight this compared to cancer," Professor Bernice Pescosolido, the director of the Irsay Institute at Indiana University, said. "And Jim's legacy is (that) he put a very powerful organization behind this fight to reduce the stigma of mental illness."




Irsay gave $3 million to the IU program, which studies physical and mental health wellness as well as addiction.




"One day I just got up the nerve to call and ask them if they knew that we did the national stigma studies down here and that we were here to help them to provide the scientific basis for the kinds of efforts that they wanted to do," said Pescosolido. "The point of what we're doing at the Irsay is for people to come out of the shadows, as Jim did, to try to understand and have people understand what we need to do as a society to help those families that are struggling and the communities that are struggling on this.




"Jim's legacy really is centered on making that message of coming out of the shadows."




Hoosiers and charitable organizations living and operating in the shadows, away from the limelight, benefited from Irsay's attention and resources.




"What was a game-changer for Pathway 7 was Jim Irsay stepped up," said Jeffers. "That changed everything."




To hear Jeffers tell it, Pathway to Recovery provided a low-key but essential link in bringing formerly homeless persons experiencing addiction or mental health challenges off the streets.




When her board recognized the need to expand its programs and add more housing for clients, Pathway to Recovery developed a plan to build a $2 million apartment building on land it already owned in the 3100 block of North Central Avenue.




The COVID-19 pandemic pushed building prices up everywhere, including at a vacant lot on the northside, where construction estimates ballooned to nearly $5 million.




Jeffers had a pledge from a recently deceased veteran and Colts season ticket holder that his estate would grant Pathway $500,000 if it could get the Colts to kick in a matching grant.




"It was kind of a zig-zag to get to Mr. Irsay's desk," said Jeffers. "We knew that he was compassionate about our target population and our mission, and we knew that behind the scenes that he was constantly helping people who were in a similar situation.




"We shared the story with Mr. Irsay and asked him (if he would) be willing to do some seed money for this project for half a million dollars to match it with the half million dollars (of) inheritance money."




Jeffers said it took about six months for the Colts owner to come back with an answer.




"He said, 'Yes,' and it was a game-changer and it changed everything for years to come," she said. "For us to be able to show a press release that said, 'Jim Irsay and the Colts provided a half-million-dollar grant to Pathway 7,' then everybody jumped on board."




On September 16, Jeffers and the Colts will cut the ribbon on Pathway 7 and its Colts Connection Center, a first-floor conference area where attendees will be reminded of Irsay's mantra, "Trust God. Clean House. Help Others."




"I'm heartbroken that I'm never gonna get to meet him," said Jeffers, who has been in recovery for 34 years and whose former board chairman was a Colts employee whom Irsay sponsored through treatment. "I'm absolutely heartbroken because I hope he's gonna know what he did not just for this property and not just for our former board chair, but beyond this, Jim Irsay bought the Alcoholics Anonymous archives, he bought the original manuscript, and he shared it with everyone."




Irsay's generosity behind the scenes came as no surprise to former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.




"I don't know a tenth of what he did for the community, for other organizations, but what I do know was enormous," said Peterson. "Every nonprofit that I've been affiliated with, we've talked to the Colts, we've asked Jim for support. (At) Crystal House International, where I was the CEO for about six years, Jim was very generous in his support. Other organizations that I've been affiliated with, he's been generous. And it's not because of me. He was incredibly philanthropic and generous in the extreme. He was a truly generous human being. Not because it made him look good. Most of the things he did were pretty much behind the scenes. And he never wanted attention called to him personally."




At FOX59/CBS4, we covered Irsay donations to the FOP to purchase trauma kits for IMPD officers, at Park Tudor School where he supported athletic programs and girls sports, at the site of a devastating fire where apartment residents lost everything, in advance of the Taylor Swift shows in Indianapolis last year where the team owner made a young Swiftie's concert dream come true and at the height of the pandemic when Irsay bought N95 masks to protect against COVID.




During the COVID-19 pandemic, Irsay made sure hungry Hoosiers were fed, too.




"During the pandemic Jim pretty quietly made a million-dollar match pledge that if Gleaners could raise $200,000, he'd give a million dollars at a time when that was very, very much needed," said Gleaners President Fred Glas,s who added the team's commitment didn't stop when the virus was brought under control or with Irsay's death. "The Colts are our presenting sponsor for our annual event.




"I think Jim really instilled that civic engagement in all three of his daughters."




Irsay's daughters, now in charge of the franchise, will be on the field Sunday afternoon as their father's name joins that of his father, Robert Irsay, the man who brought the Colts to Indianapolis, on the Ring of Honor at Lucas Oil Stadium.




"At halftime, the Irsay family will be down on the field, a lot of our former players are coming in for this as well, we've got a big group of Colts alumni coming in, which we're very happy about, and they'll join on the fifty yard line for a nice brief ceremony to remember Jim and to remember everything he did for the Colts and the NFL and Indianapolis, Indiana," said Colts Vice President of Communications Steve Campbell. "The great thing about the Colts is it's a family business, it's a family-run business, and there aren't many teams in the NFL that are solely family run anymore, so we're one of those few, and that's how Jim Irsay approached the Colts Nation as part of the Colts family."





via: https://fox59.com/sports/colts/indianapolis-recalls-charitable-side-of-jim-irsay/