NEW YORK – Cleveland Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown and his championship ring will be reunited nearly half a century after it was stolen from his home.
“I feel great,” Brown said Wednesday as he left Manhattan federal court after settling a lawsuit he brought against a memorabilia dealer. Except for the return of the ring, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The dealer ended up with the ring decades after someone stole it from Brown’s Cleveland home in 1966, just months after he received it for his role in helping the Browns win the 1964 NFL Championship Game, the predecessor to today’s Super Bowl. The championship – the last for any major Cleveland sports franchise – came in a season in which Brown rushed for 1,446 yards and scored seven touchdowns.
Brown said he plans to give the ring to one of his children, perhaps for Christmas.
“Symbolically, I don’t keep a lot of trophies. But that ring was special,” Brown told several reporters as he waited for his turn to meet with Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis earlier in the day. “It wasn’t me the star. It was all of us.”