ATHENS, Ohio – Even inside this tiny Browns enclave nestled in the Appalachian foothills, their black-and-gold nemesis is never far away.

Bar owner Richard Zippert sees it staring back at him every morning as he opens the Cat’s Eye Saloon on cobblestoned North Court Street.

The 51-year-old Cleveland Heights native came to Athens in 1980 to attend Ohio University and never left. There are more than a few locals with the same Northeast Ohio roots and stories.

Some of Zippert's enduring Browns memories are watching games at the Cat’s Eye in the late 1980s. Autographed pictures of Bernie Kosar, Ozzie Newsome, Doug Dieken and Hanford Dixon hang over the heads of those who belly up to the bar.

In 1991, the former college wrestler bought the establishment from fellow Cleveland native and Browns fan, Joe Limoli. Life remained blissful for four seasons. Then, Art Modell moved the Browns and a few years later, a Pittsburgh Steelers bar – Lucky’s Sports Tavern – opened for business directly across the street.

“It’s interesting on game days,” said Zippert, the president of the Athens Area Browns Backers. “When you’re losing it’s not much fun. It’s kind of rough ... There have been a couple times where it almost got physical in the middle of the street. People are outside smoking and jawing back and forth.

“You don’t want to cheer for a team from another state, but a lot of people around here do it.”

Athens County, population 64,000, is an outlier in Southeast Ohio. Surrounded by Steelers fans, it clings to its Browns loyalties in the face of so many losing seasons.

Years of losing have a way of eroding a fan base. The Browns can tout stadium renovations and improved egress, but until they start winning they must consider themselves fortunate for an oasis such as Athens.

A closer look at Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania on the Facebook map from 2013 shows Athens County, in brown at the southeast part of the state, as a "Browns county" surrounded by Steelers gold.

The county's allegiance gained notoriety a year ago when Facebook published a map illustrating the geographic location of NFL fan bases.



The social media site culled data from its 35 million users who have liked a team’s fan page and assigned a simple majority to every county in the nation. Given its proximity to Pittsburgh, few were surprised the region was shaded all gold except for one brown speck belonging to Athens.

Zippert believes the strong Northeast Ohio presence at Ohio University, which enrolls about 22,000 at its main campus, coupled with former students who have made the county home are the major reasons why Athens remains Browns’ territory. His saloon is the epicenter of the Steelers resistance movement. Cleveland fans continue to frequent the 30-year-old establishment despite just two winning seasons since 1999.

The Cat's Eye has been a Browns bar since it opened in 1984. Fans often watch games in the back of the saloon.

“We tailgate before the game at a place on Brown Avenue,” said graduate student Holly Ningard of Parma Heights. “And when we get down here, we don’t walk on the other side of the street.”

In an effort to engage fans outside the Cleveland area, the organization has been visiting Browns Backers clubs throughout the state. The team understands there’s no substitute for winning, but its officials are reaching out to a demoralized fan base.

They would be well served to visit Athens, home of the state’s oldest university, founded in 1804, and a group of Browns Backers trying to stave off the Steelers’ influence.

The Cat’s Eye has demonstrated more stability – just two owners over three decades – than the franchise its patrons are dedicated to following.

“It’s been terrible,” said Zippert, a season-ticket holder who used to attend games with his late father at old Municipal Stadium. “You don’t want to get up on Sundays. They have become a chore.”

If the Browns are interested in engaging fans, he said, they should promote baseball-style caravans in the off-season. The Cincinnati Reds come to town often and Athens has adopted them as their team, Zippert added.

So it’s a Browns and Reds town?

“You have to remember the Bengals weren’t around (until 1968),” he said. “Support for the Browns down here goes back generations.”

Holly Ningard, Tim Twining and Kristen Herbst are Ohio University students who have helped keep Athens County a Browns county, according to a Facebook map of NFL fan bases.

That might be true in surrounding counties as well, but the Steelers’ ascent in the 1970s began to siphon younger generations of fans away from the Browns. Athens is actually closer to Pittsburgh (182 miles) than Cleveland (211 miles), and the nearest CBS affiliate often televises Steelers games.

The Steelers have made four Super Bowls, winning two, since Zippert bought the Cat’s Eye. The Browns, meanwhile, have had three winning seasons.

Asked to describe his feeling about the team in one word, Zippert chose: “helplessness.” A year ago, he bought fellow Cleveland fan and bar regular, Jerry Johnson, a brown T-shirt that reads: “Just One Before I Die, Cleveland.”

The writing on the men’s bathroom walls also is Browns-centric: “Reward for Brandon Weeden -- $50.00 dead.”

Zippert enjoys good relations with the owner of Steelers bar, Kyle Walker. Walker’s wife, Sharon, is a Browns fan and will sometimes stop over on game days. It gives her an opportunity to meet young fans such as Kristen Herbst, 21, who wore a white No. 92 Browns jersey belonging to her father to the bar on Saturday.

The vintage Champion jersey is without a nameplate, and when she’s quizzed about what player it represents, Herbst whipped out her cellphone for a reminder.

“Michael Dean Perry,” she said smiling.

Athens native Jerry Johnson sums up the feelings of a lot of Browns fans with a T-shirt purchased for him by Cat's Eye owner Richard Zippert.

Herbst’s friend, Tim Twining, 24, of Wellington, didn’t become a big Browns fan until he reached OU. He was 6 years old and developing a love for football when the franchise left town in 1996. Twining gravitated to the Minnesota Vikings and continued to follow them into high school.

In Athens, he befriended Browns fans from Northeast Ohio and the sense of community took hold. Twining spent his Sundays in the dorms watching the Browns and when he turned 21, found his way to Cat’s Eye.

The spacious back end of the saloon, which includes two pool tables and lots of Browns signs, makes for a comfortable place to watch games on the DirecTV package. Ningard said there are 15 to 20 regulars for every Browns game, a far cry from the late 1980s when Zippert recalls fans being lucky to get in the front door if they arrived at kickoff.

Zippert said he probably attends five home games a season until the losing gets to be too much, and he watches the cold-weather games surrounded by friends at the Cat’s Eye.

When the Browns opened the season 3-2 and the Steelers sat 0-4, Ningard said it seemed fortunes were shifting on North Court Street. But the Lucky’s crowd saw the Steelers rally for a .500 season and a pair of wins over the Browns.

“Next year is going to come, one year,” Ningard said. “And when it does, things are going to be awesome.”

If it doesn’t come soon, the one speck of brown in Southeast Ohio could be wiped off the map.