Colts players unsung heroes of ?68 riots

As hundreds of National Guard troops and police officers tried to restore calm to Baltimore in the riotous days that followed the April 4, 1968, assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lenny Moore and John Mackey decided to make sandwiches. Bologna sandwiches to be exact. Hundreds of them. And they weren?t for any picnic.

They were for the estimated 2,500 desperate detainees at the Civic Center (now the 1st Mariner Arena), most of whom were being held by police after unknowingly breaking curfew. No bathroom breaks. No food. No one to turn to. And that?s when the two Baltimore Colt Hall of Famers took the field ? unannounced, but with a feeling that something had to be done before a really bad situation became much, much worse.