Indianapolis: Sports Mecca for 2012

It's just 23 short days from Super Bowl XLVI (that's 46 for you roman numeral novice's) and maybe you heard; it's in Indianapolis this year. Really?  It's true.  Indianapolis, home to "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" The Indy 500 is set to stage the largest sporting event in its history.  It's hard to believe when thinking that just 28 years ago at this time, we didn't even have a football team.  March 28, 1984.  That's the day that Jim's Father, Robert Irsay, packed up in Baltimore and loaded those infamous Mayflower trucks and moved his franchise to the Hoosier Dome in Indy.  Super Bowl 18 had just been played in sunny Tampa, Fl with the L.A. Raiders dumping the Redskins 38-9.  And at that time, Indianapolis had only hosted one Final Four, and the NCAA was not headquartered in Indianapolis.  

Now, Indianapolis gets set to not only host the Super Bowl for the first time but to be the center of the sports universe for some time to come.  There's the Super Bowl on February 5th,  the Big Ten Men's and Women's Tournaments in March, the 2012 NFL Combine in April, the Indianapolis 500 in May, the Brickyard 400 in July, the PGA BMW Championship in September, and then we start to see whoever is picked to be the Colts starter in the 2012 NFL season.  Let's not forget the resurgence of Indiana basketball with the 15-2 #8 ranked Hoosiers and the Indiana Pacers off to a good start.  Purdue, Butler, and Notre Dame also have a chance at very good years in Men's Basketball.  


Add to all that the fact that the NFL off season attention will be centered mostly on the Indianapolis Colts and what their direction with Peyton Manning and the draft will be.  All of this makes for one of the most interesting years in the history of Sports in Indianapolis.