Indianapolis Fans Brave Single-Digit Temperatures to Welcome Back Champs

Over 50,000 people showed up at the RCA Dome on Monday to cheer the Indianapolis Colts as the Super Bowl winners brought home the city's first professional sports championship since 1973.

An estimated 3,000 fans braved single-digit temperatures and sub-zero wind chill to watch the team parade through downtown streets.

Once inside the arena, Colts quarterback and Super Bowl most valuable player Peyton Manning, flanked by team owner Jim Irsay and coaches, called Indianapolis fans "the greatest in the world". The crowd was very enthusiastic about this.

Hunter Smith, the team's punter, also praised the fans and thanked Manning and the Colts' offense for making him "the least-used person at my position in the history of the game."

"You guys are awesome," Head Coach and least used playcaller in the NFL Tony Dungy told the crowd. "When Jim Irsay called me five years ago, he told me I want you to be our coach and help us win the Super Bowl. He told me we are going win it the right way. We are going to win it with great guys; win it with class and dignity. We are going to win it in a way that will make Indianapolis proud," he said.

"We have done that and we thank you," he added. (AP)

The Colts moved to Indianapolis 23 years ago from Baltimore, lured by a new stadium.

In 2008 the Colts will christen a new state of the art enclosed arena, Lucas Oil Stadium. With a capacity of over 60,000 the building was funded with significant tax support from both city and state sources, something most other American cities are not willing to do for thier non super bowl championship winning teams.

The Super Bowl victory marked the culmination of a nearly four-decade drive by the city's leaders to reshape the once sleepy image of Indianapolis into an international sports capital.

The city's last major pro sports crown came in 1973 with the Indiana Pacers of the old American Basketball Association.

(Reuters, AP)