Inside Colts owner Jim Irsay’s incredible memorabilia collection

Irsay’s collection also features another cool item from sports history. He recently paid $2 million for the saddle used by jockey Ron Turcotte to ride Secretariat to victory. The saddle is from the 1973 Belmont Stakes, when Secretariat blew away the field to win the final leg of the Triple Crown.

And the Irsay collection features far more than sports collectibles. He’s gone heavy on items from American history.

There’s his copy of the Declaration of Independence. Barack Obama wrote a letter for Irsay to accompany the document.

Then there’s an item associated with one of the most devastating moments in our history. Irsay recently purchased a Stetson hat that then Texas Gov. John Connally planned to gift President John F. Kennedy when he made an appearance in Dallas in November, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed Kennedy as he rode in a presidential motorcade. Connally also was wounded. He never had the chance to present JFK the Stetson.

Jim Irsay says his collection his priceless. He plans to leave it all to his grandkids when he dies. But he’s turned down huge offers for the entire collection.

“I’ve been offered $1.15 billion for the collection in totality by someone in the Middle East,” Irsay told ESPN. “I turned it down because, to me, No. 1, it’s priceless. And No. 2, I never started the collection for that reason, to look at it and say, ‘Oh, this is going to be a great investment.'”