Tell Me About It: Browns backers stay true to team

1. What do the Browns Backers do in Van Wert?

We meet at Olympic Lanes on game days to watch games together. We have raffles and drawings of Browns paraphernalia and we are at the county fair every year. The Browns Backers earn money for the Browns Foundation in Cleveland, who give out scholarships, and different local charities.

2. How long have you been a Browns fan?

All our lives. For me that’s the ’70s.

3. Why do you like the Browns?

That’s a good question right now. We remember so much of the rich history of the Cleveland Browns and we’d like to see that return. Every year that’s what we root for.

4. Has this year been tougher than other years?

It’s embarrassing. The first two games of this season it was. One of my grandkids told me, “You know grandma, not everyone is a Browns fan.”

5. You have a Brownsmobile, a trailer, and tons of memorabilia. When and why did you start collecting Browns stuff?

In the last 10 years, we’ve been collecting different things most of our lives. After you lose a team, you appreciate its return so you want to appreciate it and hang onto things, because you don’t know. It could happen again.

6. When did you begin the Van Wert Browns Backers?

Dan and I were members in Lima and then Delphos before we started the Van Wert group in 2005.

7. How do people react to seeing a custom hot rod with a Browns theme?

We have taken the Brownsmobile to other Browns Backers activities and that’s how we have so many autographs. The players are drawn to it and sit in it and some have gone for a ride.