Prize belt awarded to top athletes stolen in North Dakota

Maris, who grew up in Fargo, won it 1961 after he hit a then-record-setting 61 home runs.

Chris Heaton, property manager of West Acres Mall, which houses the Roger Maris Museum, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident.

Heaton said he didn’t have a value estimate for the belt or the rest of the museum’s collection but said for him and many others in the community every item is priceless. It is worth between $90,000 and $140,000, according to the website.

Winners included Rocky Marciano, Willie May, Mickey Mantle, Arnold Palmer, Jim Brown, Sandy Koufax, Joe Namath, Muhammad Ali and Pete Rose.

Surveillance video showed a person dressed in full black breaking into an entrance at the Fargo mall at 2:48 a.m.

Police say it appears the thief jumped into the passenger side of a auto, so they suspect at least one more person was involved in the burglary.

Heaton said security personnel at the mall arrived at the display two minutes after an alarm went off.

Police say they don’t know what the man looks like or what color his vehicle is.

From 1951-72, the stunning Hickok Belt was awarded annually at the Rochester Press-Radio Dinner by the Hickok Manufacturing Company.

In 1961, the National Football League wasn’t yet as big a thing as it would become later, the best USA -born golfer – Arnold Palmer – had won the Hickok the year before. The award was discontinued in 1976 and revived in 2013, when LeBron James was honored by sports writers.

No arrests have been made, but security footage has been turned over to police.

Heaton said the Maris family, which owns the museum collection, has been notified of the theft.

So it says here that 82-year-old NBA legend Bill Russell – a pioneering NCAA and NBA Hall of Famer, an Olympic gold medalist, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and generally one of the most decorated athletes in pro sports history – plotted and executed a heist at a North Dakota shopping mall to take the Hickok Belt he still believes he rightfully earned away from the Roger Maris Museum.