Pilot crashed into Ravens’ former stadium during playoff game over feud with iconic two-time NFL champion

This year’s Army-Navy Game is being held at the Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium.

Built in 1998 at a cost of $220 million, it is currently in the middle of an upgrade worth $450 million.

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While the Ravens were building their shiny new home having left Cleveland behind in a controversial relocation, the upstart franchise played at Baltimore Memorial Stadium for two seasons.

The first game against the Oakland Raiders drew over 64,000 fans in a city that had been starved of a football team since the Colts upped sticks and headed to Indianapolis in 1984.

Before the switch, the Colts had been extremely successful, winning three NFL Championships (1958, 1959, 1968) and the Super Bowl in 1971.

Those triumphs came at the iconic memorial stadium.

‘The Old Grey Lady of 33rd Street’ began her life in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1950 as a 31,000-seater bowl that had increased capacity to 47,855 three years later — just in time for the Colts to move in.

A team built around legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas dominated the late 50s.

Linebacker Bill Pellington was a huge part of the 1958 and 1959 triumphs.

The 6ft 2in, 234lb athlete was a throwback.

“If a sculptor wanted to mold the face and physique of a football player, the perfect working model was Bill Pellington, who spent 12 impact years with the Baltimore Colts and distinguished himself with an intensity that earned respect,” Baltimore Sun sportswriter John Steadman wrote In his book Days In The Sun.

Pellington was famed for his tackling technique — known as swing-arm or neck-tie.

“Bill Pellington should have been thrown out of every game he ever played and most of the practices. Pellington was nuts. Even the officials were a little afraid of him. He got away with murder,” admitted teammate Alex Hawkins.

The legendary defender also owned a bar and restaurant, which became the fuse for one of the most bizarre incidents in football history.

Plane crash at Baltimore Memorial Stadium

Baltimore also won Super Bowl V — the first held after the 1970 merger that has marked a watershed in football history.

The franchise was looking to add another crown in the 1976 season but ran aground against a formidable Pittsburgh Steelers outfit in the first round of the playoffs.

A 40-14 rout for the visitors turned out to be a blessing in disguise that averted a potential disaster.

Just minutes after the game, a tiny Piper Cherokee airplane crashed into the upper deck above the south end zone.

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Most of the fans had already left and remarkably there were only four minor injuries.

The 33-year-old pilot Donald Kroner had been arrested a week prior for reckless flying, littering, and making a bomb threat against Pellington.

It later emerged that Kroner had been ejected from the bar and restaurant that the Colts legend owned for using foul language.

His earlier arrest came after he flew over The Iron Horse dropping flaming toilet paper and two bottles in an apparent firebomb attempt.

The Colts were gone eight years later and Memorial Stadium was torn down in 2001.

There is now a recreational baseball field on the site and the Ravens have become a force to be reckoned with.

Pellington passed away in 1994 at the age of 66 having left behind a notable legacy.

The Army and Navy rosters will continue a proud football tradition in a series uninterrupted since 1930 on Saturday in a city that has left its own mark on the pro game.

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