Early into what's become a three-and-a-half-decade-career with the Colts, Pam Humphrey saw a newborn nestled in a carrier at the team's facility.
Fast-forward to 2021, and Humphrey saw that baby – Kalen Jackson, Colts Vice Chair/Co-Owner – make a tremendous impact in the important space of mental health awareness.
"It's kind of blown my mind, because she's just a baby and now she's having babies, and she's a very big proponent of the Kicking The Stigma movement," Humphrey said. "So it brings it back full circle. The baby is now a leader."
Humphrey has seen the Colts grow up, literally and figuratively, since Larry Hall – now the team's Vice President of Special Projects and Historical Affairs – hired her to join the club's ticketing department in 1987. She's been a member of the Colts' communications department for 34 years, and has been on two staffs – in 1996 and 2019 – that earned the Pete Rozelle Award, given annually by the Pro Football Writers Association to the top communications staff in the NFL.
Among her responsibilities as the Colts' communications coordinator, Humphrey handles media credentials and requests from visiting team personnel to get them into Lucas Oil Stadium. She works with Colts partnerships and ticketing to manage gameday needs, and helps the team's personnel on getting what they need from other teams on the road.
And, of course, she handles anything else that comes her way.
"It compares to nothing that I had done prior to coming here," Humphrey said. "It's exciting. It's a challenge. No day is the same. And I think for me, that's what it is. No day is the same. Even in the offseason, something's always going on."
Back when she joined the Colts, Humphrey couldn't have imagined having the role of communications coordinator – because she didn't see other women in roles with titles that allowed for upward mobility. In the early 2000's, though, Humphrey recalled Colts Owner and CEO Jim Irsay taking all of the organization's secretaries out to lunch and telling them their roles would be defined as assistants from then on.
"And so as the organization grew, those assistants became coordinators, managers, assistant managers, directors," Humphrey said.
The Colts now have a number of women in leadership positions, from Irsay's three daughters – Colts Vice Chair/Owners Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt and Jackson – to two vice presidents (Lindsey Hammond, VP of Finance; Stephanie Pemberton, VP of Marketing) to numerous directors and managers throughout the organization.
So as Humphrey has seen the Colts' fanbase grow since the nascent stages of the team's time in Indianapolis, she's seen the Colts grow internally, too, with more and more women having a voice in determining the direction of the club.
"You know some of the decisions are going to be made in the point of view of a woman," Humphrey said. "And that in itself means that I have a voice somewhere."
