Society

Ten-Year-Old Boy Uses College Money To Buy “The Fridge’s” Super Bowl Ring . . And Returns It To The Ailing Bears Linebacker

For those of us who are lifelong Bears fans, there are few icons quite like William “The Refrigerator” Perry. It is well-known among Bears fans that Perry hit tough times financially and then was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. I saw this story on Reddit and was moved by the kindness shown to Perry by a Cliff Forest, 10, who saw that Perry’s Super Bowl XX ring was being sold. Realizing that Perry may have had to sell it, Forest used $8,500 from his college fund to buy the ring . . . and then tracked down Perry and gave it to him.

It turns out that Forest is not even a Bears fans. He is from California.

Forest found “The Fridge” at the Ace Hardware Spring Convention at McCormick Place signing autographs and presented the ring to him. Perry declined to explain what happened to the ring but was overwhelmed by young Forest’s act of kindness.

Well done, Cliff.

Source: Sun Times

33 thoughts on “Ten-Year-Old Boy Uses College Money To Buy “The Fridge’s” Super Bowl Ring . . And Returns It To The Ailing Bears Linebacker”

  2. Wow, wonderful blog layout! How lengthy have you been blogging for? you make running a blog glance easy. The entire glance of your web site is wonderful, let alone the content material!

  4. Blouise:

    I am paying the price for my trip with a bountiful litigation schedule. Will check in when I can.

  5. mespo,

    You’re back! I can always trust football to pull you out of the wings.

  6. Bruce in Jersey:

    The quality of mercy is not tested by the means of the giver.

  7. Catullus:

    Right your are. Perry was what we call a “0 technique” in that Bear 46 Defense. He also did a stint at running back on the goal line team on offense.

    STEELERS 6

    PACKERS 4

  9. Yes, the story is heartwarming, but there are a few facts your readers should know before they send a contribution to young Cliff’s college fund. Cliff is Cliff Forrest (two r’s, not Forest), Jr., and he’s not from California. He’s from Pittsburgh, PA, where his father, Cliff Forrest Sr., is the owner of Rosebud Mining Company, which operates 26 coal mines in Ohio and Pennsylvania. (This information reported in the Sun Times http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/4634086-419/the-fridge-stunned-to-get-super-bowl-ring-back.html and ESPN Chicago: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/news/story?id=6290024)

    I haven’t sniffed out Rosebud’s financials, but one can safely assume a man who owns 26 coal mines is pretty wealthy. This detracts very little from 10-year-old Cliff Jr.’s generosity. The fact that he’s got his own savings fund indicates his parents are raising him to manage money responsibly, and nothing compels a boy to give money away, even if he knows there’s more coming to him. But I don’t think his mother would have let him spend $8500 to recover a sentimental treasure for a down-at-the-heels ex-football player if it placed his future college education in any real jeopardy.

    So what we have here is a well-to-do family making a really nice gesture, and that is still praiseworthy, but – alas – not quite the same as if a poor or middle-income kid had done it.

  10. You must not be that well-informed of a Bears fan, professor, Perry was not a linebacker, he was a defensive tackle.

    Packers 31 Steelers 25

  11. BelgianBrain 1, April 6, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    Shaq is rich… the white man that signs his check is wealthy.

    Chris Rock making way too much sense: http://t.co/NuAWsKI
    ——————–
    hahahahahaha! those folks that own the color blue…hahahahahaha!

    now that’s funny….

  12. On the topic of William Perry (BTW I refuse to use the nickname that must cause him incredible grief now given his weight and attendant health problems)and the disposable athletes we use for sport, here’s an article detailing the sad — but not uncommon — existence of former jocks now suffering from the long term effects of their “passion.” We do well to recall that the average age of mortality of your average former NFL player is 54 years while the average American outlives him by a comfortable 20 more years. In addition, closed head injuries seem to be an epic problem. If ever an industry needed regulation on the grounds of safety, this is it. Likely we’ll need another Triangle Shirtwaste Factory fire case (circa 1911) to move the lawmakers, but it is inevitable.

    http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2010/news/story?id=6091766

  13. I’ll clip this posting and present it whenever I hear the tired old bromide about the ingratitude and laziness of today’s youth. I like this generation better than most of their “virtuous” and “industrious” predecessors. They seem smarter too.

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