This site has profiled a few different Michigan championship rings that have ended up on eBay. Long time readers may recall:
- 1986 Rose Bowl Ring: This prompted a few follow-up posts, the first speculating on the original owner and then another, after a teammate confirmed my sleuthing.
- 1977 Championship Ring: Not as pretty as the others, but painful to see.
- 1980 Rose Bowl ring: Probably the wildest story, a ring alleged to a salesman sample bearing the name ‘McCartney’ on the side prompts a note from former Michigan and Colorado coach Bill McCartney’s wife Lyndi, asking that the ring be returned to her husband.
Funny, when I was posting about these other rings it crossed my mind that this day could happen but hoped it never would. It did:
Ah yes, the 1998 Rose Bowl, what a week, what a game. [Sidenote: I arrived in Los Angeles a couple of days before the game. I saw Morris Day and the Time at the House of Blues on 12/30, then I joined Run DMC at the Viper Room to ring in the New Year. I still have the T-shirt from the show, it was incredible].
As with the 1986 ring, the seller has offered a clue as to the original owner, but not much. From the auction description:
“..this is a players ring designed in 10k YG and is an original ring not a copy or reproduction. This ring was from a running back that actually saw playing time during the game. The ring is size 13 ish?”
As far as the owner of the ring, I’m not going to push this too far. I’ll mention the disclaimer that I’ve been through before: there are a variety of ways things like this can end up on eBay (lost, stolen, sold by a relative/friend, & so on). You can’t assume that player deliberately sold his ring on the auction site, let alone whether the ring is authentic.
I asked the seller for more details (waiting for a response) but based on the clue in the description I think we can narrow down the potential options of the original owner.
