1986 Ring Saga, Update

Another follow-up to my May 20th eBay Watch post on the 1986 Rose Bowl ring, and the follow-up post that uncovered the likely original owner.

Proving once again that while the Michigan football family is vast, it’s a tight group and word gets around pretty quick, here you go:
* I was contacted by member of the 1985-6 Wolverines. He called Allen Bishop and they eventually got on a three way call with Garland Rivers and talked about my post, the ring and lord knows what else.
* He confirmed that this was Bishop’s ring but the circumstances of how it ended up out of Bishop’s possession and eventually on eBay were not disclosed.
* I was informed that former players and coaches can actually order replacement rings from Jostens as all the original specs are on file.

A few takeaways here:
– I respect Bishop for not wanting to get into details on how the ring ended up on eBay. The possibilities are endless and I know that many players give their rings to family/friends especially if they have rings from other seasons. All in all it’s really none of anyone’s business but Bishop’s as to how it may have got here and if he doesn’t want to disclose that’s cool.
– I’m going to send Coach McCartney’s wife a note letting her know they can replace his 1980/1 ring which was featured here last year.
– As these rings are becoming kind of a subplot here on MVictors.com, I may change my posting name from Webmaster to ‘Ring Boy’, although one of my buddies at U-M coincidentally carries that nickname.

The eBay bidding on Bishop’s ring closes this weekend, you can see the auction here.

UPDATE 6/8: It sold this afternoon for a cool $2,477.

3 Comments

  • E. Libman

    Regarding the recent posts relating to the 1986 Michigan Rose Bowl ring listed on ebay and with all due respect I was unable to make a great deal of sense from your response to my comments which essentially states that the detective work used on this ring was actually, well, detective work.

    In your reply you state that we (whoever that includes) have no clue as to why, or who sold this ring or how it ended up on ebay. You also raise the question whether the ring was sold legitimately but there is no way of knowing this because “we don’t know the circumstances” regarding the sale nor why or if this player would willingly sell his ring.

    I do not believe it is incumbent upon us nor any other ebay seller to satisfy the curiosity of anyone regarding the particulars of how, where or when an item being auctioned was acquired by that seller simply because they wonder if the item might have been stolen.

    The incriminating point and odd logic was also raised stating that stolen merchandise such as this ring does appear on ebay and the existence of this ring (on ebay) does not mean that the player gave it up on his own accord.

    It was mentioned also though in a passing manner, that yes sometimes players do give away their rings particularly players with the profile of Mr. Bishop who would surely have rings from other Bowl games as well as for past seasons played. However in this case the odds for that was chalked up not as a likelihood but to being just one of endless possibilities there was considerably more ink devoted to the various other suspicious scenarios surrounding this ring.

    If there was concern about whether this ring was stolen or not, which let’s face it that is the implication in your response, that would account for the magnifying glass and your attempt to determine the player’s name but it does not explain why his identity would need to be exposed to your readers.

    If this ring did belong to Mr. Bishop who declined to divulge details on how it may have wound up on ebay, it should be noted yet it was not, that Mr. Bishop certainly made no claim that the ring was ever stolen or misappropriated from him which is all anyone who may have been concerned really needs to know.

    I would also like to bring to your attention that if your web site had questions regarding how this ring came into our possession it would have been prudent to ask us instead of merely speculating and breaking out the magnifying glass.

    No one from Mvictors.com ever inquired as to how we acquired this ring and since our goal all along was simply to protect the privacy of this player not to hide anything which by now should not be in dispute, it seems unfortunate that our motives should have ever been questioned or used as justification for your efforts to do otherwise.

    It is unfortunate that our intentions were second guessed, it also seems obvious that we did not receive the same benefit of the doubt for our attempt to withhold information that your site received by us for it’s attempt to reveal it.

    Despite my disagreement with the decision to expose this player’s identity I never second guessed what motivated you to do so, I also do not believe and certainly never stated that you intentionally tried to embarrass this player, I stated very clearly my feeling that everyone’s intentions were most likely good intentions.

    On the other hand, simply because someone spoke with Mr. Bishop and they did not express to you that Mr. Bishop mentioned anything about being embarrassed does not rule out the possibility that he may have been. If Mr. Bishop did feel embarrassment you stated that you would have done something about it, however, how does one undo unwanted exposure once it has been posted to the world wide web other than that I am unaware of anything you could have done it would be too late.

    During the auction as previously stated we were contacted by a gentleman who was a coach for Michigan during the 1986 season, he did ask us about this player’s identity and how we came into possession of this ring. I explained to him that we would not feel right exposing the identity of the player however I did provide details about how we acquired the ring which he understood and appreciated.

    I assured the former coach that we reported a complete description of this ring to our local law enforcement agency at the time we purchased it and after a lengthy holding period the determination was made that the ring was never reported stolen by anyone at anytime.

    If your web site wishes to confirm the exchange of information with the former coach I will provide his name to you as long as we are assured that his privacy will be protected, I feel confident the former coach would back up our story. The point is, if you had asked us how we got this ring we would have provided an answer there is nothing for us to hide.

    There is one additional issue that I would like to address, that is a point attributed to me stating that nothing good could come from exposing the name of this player which is not what I said.

    Three former Michigan players contacting each other and strolling down memory lane can certainly be a positive occurrence but it is quite a stretch linking it to the ring controversy since that opportunity has always available for these players with or without this ring being listed on ebay.

    The point I actually made was merely an opinion, that is that naming this player on your web site did not seem (to me) to be in his or anyone else’s best interest, that is what I said and stand by it as I sit here today, I will leave it to you and to your readers to determine whether or not I was misquoted.

    I am still very appreciative for your complimentary words as well as the exposure given to our auction by your web site. Tell the Michigan cheerleader squad Buckhead_Bennie says hey.

    Thank you,
    Eddie Libman, Pest.

  • Webmaster

    Eddie-
    You seem like a good guy. Will say hello to the cheerleaders when I see them – they left all their toothbrushes here this past weekend.

    There’s no implication (deliberate or otherwise) in these pages that you did anything wrong in selling the ring.

    That said, I’m not sure anyone really cares about any of this.