section_path: Personal life/The Jim Irsay Collection
section_name: The Jim Irsay Collection
paragraph_text: The Jim Irsay Collection
  
  Outside football, Irsay made significant investments in music and memorabilia with The Jim Irsay Collection. In 2001, Irsay purchased the original manuscript of On the Road, or "the scroll": a continuous, one hundred twenty-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets that Jack Kerouac cut to size and taped together, for $2.43 million. On May 5, 2018, he purchased an original printing of the 1939 book Alcoholics Anonymous with notes handwritten by the author Bill Wilson, cofounder of AA, for $2.4 million at auction.
  
  In 2021, Guitar Magazine characterized Irsay as the owner of "the greatest guitar collection on Earth."
  
  Irsay purchased guitars originally owned by Elvis Presley, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jerry Garcia ("Tiger"), Prince, Les Paul (his 1954 Black Beauty), and other notable performers. His purchases have set records: In 2014 he bought the electric guitar that Bob Dylan played at Newport for just under US$1 million and in 2017 he paid US$2.2 million for a Ludwig drum set belonging to Ringo Starr. On June 20, 2019, Irsay paid a record $3.3 million for a guitar, known as The Black Strat, formerly owned by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. On May 23, 2022, Irsay paid a record $4.6 million for the 1969 Fender Mustang played by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in the music video for " Smells Like Teen Spirit ". In 2023, Irsay acquired the saddle used by Secretariat when he won the American Triple Crown in 1973. He also purchased the boots Muhammad Ali wore during his famous “ Thrilla in Manila ” fight against Joe Frazier, the volleyball Wilson from the movie Cast Away, and letters from Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.
  
  Outside football, Irsay made significant investments in music and memorabilia with The Jim Irsay Collection. In 2001, Irsay purchased the original manuscript of On the Road, or "the scroll": a continuous, one hundred twenty-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets that Jack Kerouac cut to size and taped together, for $2.43 million. On May 5, 2018, he purchased an original printing of the 1939 book Alcoholics Anonymous with notes handwritten by the author Bill Wilson, cofounder of AA, for $2.4 million at auction.
  
  In 2021, Guitar Magazine characterized Irsay as the owner of "the greatest guitar collection on Earth."
  
  Irsay purchased guitars originally owned by Elvis Presley, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jerry Garcia ("Tiger"), Prince, Les Paul (his 1954 Black Beauty), and other notable performers. His purchases have set records: In 2014 he bought the electric guitar that Bob Dylan played at Newport for just under US$1 million and in 2017 he paid US$2.2 million for a Ludwig drum set belonging to Ringo Starr. On June 20, 2019, Irsay paid a record $3.3 million for a guitar, known as The Black Strat, formerly owned by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. On May 23, 2022, Irsay paid a record $4.6 million for the 1969 Fender Mustang played by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in the music video for " Smells Like Teen Spirit ". In 2023, Irsay acquired the saddle used by Secretariat when he won the American Triple Crown in 1973. He also purchased the boots Muhammad Ali wore during his famous “ Thrilla in Manila ” fight against Joe Frazier, the volleyball Wilson from the movie Cast Away, and letters from Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.