Former Browns guard John Wooten back in Cleveland for Summit II

CLEVELAND — Nearly six decades ago former Cleveland Browns star and social activist John Wooten answered Jim Brown's call to get the guys together in support of Muhammad Ali at an event that came to be known as the Cleveland Summit. On Tuesday, Wooten was able to "get the guys together again" at Cleveland Summit II as leaders from the sports and academic worlds came together at the Ideastream Idea Center in Playhouse Square to relive the tumultuous days of the 1960s and celebrate Wooten's contributions while also recognizing the challenges still faced by the Black community in the 21st century. The Summit was organized by former sportswriter turned filmmaker John Harris, who is working on a documentary about Wooten, who played nine seasons with the Browns, beginning in 1959, before spending three decades working in front office roles with the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens. Among the guests at the Cleveland Summit II were Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, Kimberly Brown James (the daughter of Jim Brown), NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow and Etan Thomas, who played 10 years in the NBA. "It's easy to get people involved when you have John Wooten," Harris said. "When they find out Mr. Wooten is involved, everyone is like, 'Yes, I'll be there.' "We're in the process of doing a documentary on John Wooten and a few months ago we decided we wanted a really happy ending type of situation and figured Cleveland Summit II, coming back to revisit what happened in 1967 would be a great ending. From there it's just grown and grown, and the more we got into it we just wanted to make it as a good of a product as we could." As part of the event Wooten joined a panel discussion and reflected on how the original summit came about in 1967 when himself and Brown formed a group of athletes and civic leaders that included basketball stars Bill Russell and Lew Alcindor, who eventually changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Browns running back Bobby Mitchell and Carl Stokes, who later that year became the first Black mayor of a major American city when he won the election in Cleveland, that stood behind Ali literally and figuratively as he battled with the United States government over his conscientious objector status during the war in Vietnam. The photo that emerged from the Summit, of the prominent Black athletes standing alongside Ali during a press conference, became an iconic image of the civil rights movement. Wooten, who lives in Texas, was happy to return to Cleveland to relive that day. "It's something that we wanted to do because Cleveland has meant so much to us in terms of our lives and so forth," said the 88-year-old. "We take great pride in what we were able to do here in 1967 with the Champ. We felt because of how great sports was to us, we should come back and try to do it here." Wooten said the relationship between himself, Brown and Ali dated back to 1964 when they all met in Miami when the Browns were preparing for the Playoff Bowl (a game that was held from 1960-70 that pitted the two divisional runners-up) and Ali, who Wooten always simply refers to as "the Champ," was preparing for his first fight with Sonny Liston. Earlier that season the seeds of Wooten and Brown's social activism started to take root. "We used to train at Hiram," Wooten said. "I remember Jim said to me one night in 1963, Jim said to me we're going to have to get in the movement, we're going to have to get an organization. We're not going to march, we're not going to sit-in, but we've got to be in the movement. That's when we put together the Negro Industrial and Economic Union." It was at the NIEU headquarters on Euclid Avenue, near University Circle where the original Summit took place. With a guest list of leaders from across the country, Tuesday's Summit II could have taken place anywhere in America but Harris felt it important to bring it to Cleveland. "This is where John Wooten played. This is where he and Jim Brown first met ... it just wouldn't be right to have this anywhere else but Cleveland. There were so many memories," Harris said. "I've learned there are so many layers to it and I felt like it was important to highlight the city of Cleveland." Former Browns running back Greg Pruitt was among the NFL alumni to take part in Summit II. Pruitt, who will be 74 in less than a month, spent the first nine years of his NFL career in Cleveland after getting drafted in the second round of the 1973 draft. "I got a chance to know Jim Brown, I got a chance to know John Wooten and I am old enough to know about the Summit," Pruitt said. "I wasn't there, but I knew all the people in the pictures. Being a Black player and understanding Black struggles I understand what they were trying to do. They did bring about some change." Wooten, who was inducted into the Cleveland Browns Ring of Honor in 2010, said he still tries to come back to Cleveland for the annual Ring of Honor ceremony. "The Browns have such a great history going all the way back to 1946 with (Marion) Motley and (Bill) Willis and those guys," Wooten said. "That still resonates with us and of course playing with Jim (Brown) and the great leadership he showed." Although they played in different eras, Pruitt got to see Brown's leadership first hand, the leadership that made the Summit possible. "Jim was ahead of his time," Pruitt said. "When you see him it was kinda like, wow, so he already had you as an audience. Thank God he used that stage to make life better for a lot of people." Harris said the documentary, tentatively titled "Get the Guys Together," should be ready for distribution by the spring of 2026. He also noted that the panel discussion that took place Tuesday will air at a later date on WVIZ-TV, the local Public Broadcasting System affiliate. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.