MOUNT VERNON — The first thing that catches the eye when walking into the Cleveland Browns Room in Wilson Warner’s home is Cleveland, Where the Sun Always Shines emblazoned above the bay windows.
Warner, relaxing in one of his Cleveland Browns chairs in his Mount Vernon home, is dressed from head to toe in a Browns gear. It includes a straw hat, Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and deck shoes.
“I came up with that (phrase in his home) years and years ago,” Warner said. “I was young and we were going to baseball games. You know how you would be disappointed when there would be rain? More than once when we would hit the Cleveland city limits, the sun would come out, and I said, ‘Cleveland, where the sun always shines.’”
The super fan said his friends liked the phrase, and through the magic of the internet, it became a mantra for his friends and beyond.
“It is on the Browns’ website,” Warner said.
Facing a conundrum
Warner, a retired Mount Vernon city police officer, has never been shy about his love for Cleveland’s professional football team. Through people he has met and the occasional raffle ticket, he has more stories than the Empire State Building.
“I got to ride in the Goodyear Blimp; won that ride in a raffle,” Warner said. “There was just the pilot and no co-pilot, so I got to sit up front for part of the ride.”
“See that bottle of wine over there?” he asked, pointing across the room to a bottle mounted on the wall.
A personal note was written on the bottle.
“I know it by heart,” Warner said.
“It says, ‘Wilson, please do not open until the Cleveland Browns win the Super Bowl or the year 2020, whichever comes first.”’
The inscription is signed “Carmen Policy.” Policy was part-owner of the Browns.
In 2020, Warner was faced with a conundrum, as the Browns have yet to play in a Super Bowl, let alone win one.
“I don’t have the heart to open the thing up and lose my conversation piece,” Warren said. “So I emailed Mr. Policy and said, ‘I have a dilemma here. I do not want to open your bottle of wine.’”
Policy answered the email and left the decision up to Warner. Warner proudly displays the bottle today, the cork still in place.
“He gave me that bottle in 2010!” Warner said.
A lifetime of stories
One of the more prominent items on display is a framed jersey.
“There are 61 autographs on that jersey,” Warner said.
Here’s the story.
When he attended the Browns’ 2012 training camp, team officials welcomed Warner into a VIP tent.
“I took the jersey with me, and when they came off the field and were done practicing, they formed a line in front of our tent,” he said.
Among the signatures Warner is most proud of is that of Hall-of-Famer Joe Thomas.
Remnants of a bygone era
As he moved along the wall of the museum-like shrine, Warner voiced his disapproval of one change brought on by modern technology.
“Your ticket is [now] your phone. They no longer give paper [tickets]. Those are souvenirs,” he said, pointing to a shadow box filled with ticket stubs.
Two nondescript seats sit beside the door.
“Those are my old stadium chairs from the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium,” Warner said.
Pointing to a photo and a polo shirt, Warner recalled when he met a member of baseball history.
Larry Doby, the second Black man to play in the Major Leagues and the first to play in the American League, visited Kenyon College in 2001.
“We got to meet him, and he signed my shirt while I was still wearing it,” Warner said.
However, after 44 years as a Browns’ season ticket holder, Warner is calling it quits.
“The tickets I heard were going to be $240 a game this year,” he lamented. “They are going to $80 or $90 (to park), and it does not include food or drink.”
Yet his devotion to the Browns hasn’t waned, despite their struggles.
Warner has no idea how many pieces of memorabilia he has on display.
“My wife said I should tag everything, and I probably should. I just never got around to it,” he said.
Although the season tickets might not be a part of his future, there is no doubt Wilson Warner will cheer on the Browns from his living room.
And who knows? Maybe soon he can open that bottle of wine.