CCSLC Championship Ring Thread

[Karlsgems]

Wasn't the 49ers first ring from Tiffany? Or was it Balfour? Shoot, it might have been Balfour now that I think about it. .....can you recall?

Hey Karl,

thanks for the reply. The first Forty Niner ring made by Balfour.

Did not know about the UCLA ring. I wonder what the first Tiffany Championship ring was. It might go back to the 60's or even earlier.

Ok, thanks for setting me straight!

As for the first Tiffany championship ring....that's a great question. You know the first place I'd look? The New York Yankees championship rings or other long-term really successful franchises like Boston Celtics, Montreal Canadiens.

Of course, as I write this I can't think of a single ring I've seen from those teams that wasn't made by Jostens, Balfour or another ring maker we could name.

What about Boxing championship rings? I know Sugar Ray Leonard had at least ONE sweet ring made by Jostens, but what about Muhammad Ali or George Foreman or one of the boxing greats? I say this because I am much less familiar with those rings, and those flashy guys would've wanted the best most flashy ring. Just a guess tho.

When it comes to nfl, nba, hockey and baseball I think your example of the 1987 Redskins ring takes the prize for first Tiffany championship ring in the pro's. Between the lot of us on this page I would think we could come up with the answer. Who the hell else would know such an obscure thing? We are among the very few who would care to know the answer. It seems like if we put our heads together, we could maybe actually answer this.

Ymar, are you out there? You've seen a heck of a lot of rings too, what do you think? Can you think of an early Tiffany ring that might be the first?

Man, this thread is awesome. I am so grateful to finally find a group of ring people like me!

Take care,

Karl

[sports-rings.com]

Seriously, ask any player. The most valuable Super Bowl ring? The next one.

Well said and so true!

[Karlsgems]

"Seriously, ask any player. The most valuable Super Bowl ring? The next one."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amen, brother!

[dralec]

Great pics Mike, thank you.

BTW do you realize you probably have the largest Super Bowl Championship ring collection in the World?

I don't think any other collector in the world has as many rings as you do?

Tim Robbins and Scott W. might have seen more rings but I don't think they are collecting them.

Ymar has a big collection of rings, but I think he has the most complete NCAA CFB National Championship ring collection.

Anyhow, hope your collection keeps growing and you keep posting pics.

[sports-rings.com]

Great pics Mike, thank you.

BTW do you realize you probably have the largest Super Bowl Championship ring collection in the World?

I don't think any other collector in the world has as many rings as you do?

Tim Robbins and Scott W. might have seen more rings but I don't think they are collecting them.

Ymar has a big collection of rings, but I think he has the most complete NCAA CFB National Championship ring collection.

Anyhow, hope your collection keeps growing and you keep posting pics.

Thanks for your kind words!

According to Tim Robins, there are a couple of collectors out there who have every superbowl ring.

Irv Learner who is an absolute thief (he makes and sells fake salesman sample rings and ruined the market for them) has 4x as many rings as I have. Irv is a piece of work, and went around for years saying he had every superbowl ring. Turns out he included salesman samples in his counting and he is far from a complete run.

Tim is not a collector, oddly, he is not even a sports fan! Scott is a collector and knows more about championship rings than anyone I have ever met. TJ is also a dealer and knows a lot about rings. TJ is a collector too and has an outstanding collection (from what I can gather).

There are a lot of collectors out there with amazing collections - they just don't come here and photograph their rings like I do - LOL

If you guys don't mind, I will continue to photograph rings when I acquire some more and get the ones I have from the bank vault. I love taking pictures of multiple rings that have a common theme!

thanks again

[Karlsgems]

Great pics Mike, thank you.

BTW do you realize you probably have the largest Super Bowl Championship ring collection in the World?

I don't think any other collector in the world has as many rings as you do?

Tim Robbins and Scott W. might have seen more rings but I don't think they are collecting them.

Ymar has a big collection of rings, but I think he has the most complete NCAA CFB National Championship ring collection.

Anyhow, hope your collection keeps growing and you keep posting pics.

^^^^^Can I just second everything he just said?? ^^^^^

It is awesome how much you share with us and it is VERY appreciated. Sharing your knowledge is also a cool thing to do. I think this is an amazing opportunity to meet other people with the same championship ring passion. Hope we can spend many years sharing pics and discussing these beautiful creations here in this forum!

All the Best,

Karl

[dralec]

Hey Mike:

I think you might like this story for your blog.

I don't know jack about Hockey, but Toronto is going to hand out Stanley Cup rings for their championship run in 1960's. Apparently back than they only gave out one ring and only changed the size of the diamond after each championship.

Great article in TSN also, stating back then players paid for the rings themselves and club only gave them colored TV!

This is a class act thing to do if you ask me.

I am not sure if this is the picture of the actual ring or not. Tiffany & Co. is making the rings.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=459279

http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2014/08/12/maple_leafs_legends_praise_stanley_cup_rings_plan.html

[sports-rings.com]

Thanks Dralec!

I did see the story, and did something on it. Thanks for thinking of me! I also was confussed by the pictures on the internet, not knowing if that was the ring.

You're the Pats fan?

Great story on Joe Andruzzi. What a great guy!

[dralec]

Yes Mike, I am a Patriots fan, Joe Andruzi story is great, enjoyed all 3 rings.

Thanks for posting pics of all the Patriots rings. I am glad you have all the rings, including AFC rings. I look at that picture pretty much every day.

I am sure their new rings will be the largest and heaviest SB rings ever!

[dralec]

It is a great problem to have Mike, mathcing rings and watches.

At the very least have to match the watch and the ring colors.

I have 3 rings, yellow gold rings go with two tone yellow gold tone and silver band watches, white gold goes with all stainless steel band (I also match color of the ring stone with color of the face of the watch).

Jimmy Johnson does a great job matching his all gold Rolex with his yellow gold Dallas Cowboys SB rings.

Gruden wears different watches with his Tampa Bay gold ring, but he never gets it right. Either the watch is too small or its wrong color.

Barry Switzer did a good job too, both OK national championship and Cowboys SB ring went well with his gold Rolex (I guess everything goes well with a Gold Rolex).

Aikman has started to wear his rings too now on Fox broadcasts. I see lot of the retired NFL coahces wearing their rings on TV these days.

Jerry Jones might have lost one of his rings in the last bathroom break few weeks ago. Wouldn’t be surprised if one of those girls has one of his rings! Lol

[Karlsgems]

It is a great problem to have Mike, mathcing rings and watches.

At the very least have to match the watch and the ring colors.

I have 3 rings, yellow gold rings go with two tone yellow gold tone and silver band watches, white gold goes with all stainless steel band (I also match color of the ring stone with color of the face of the watch).

Jimmy Johnson does a great job matching his all gold Rolex with his yellow gold Dallas Cowboys SB rings.

Gruden wears different watches with his Tampa Bay gold ring, but he never gets it right. Either the watch is too small or its wrong color.

Barry Switzer did a good job too, both OK national championship and Cowboys SB ring went well with his gold Rolex (I guess everything goes well with a Gold Rolex).

Aikman has started to wear his rings too now on Fox broadcasts. I see lot of the retired NFL coahces wearing their rings on TV these days.

Jerry Jones might have lost one of his rings in the last bathroom break few weeks ago. Wouldn’t be surprised if one of those girls has one of his rings! Lol

Gruden is a terrible dresser. That guy needs to get a decent watch. I'm pretty sure he can afford something decent.

Also, he is not naturally a ring-wearer. His ring is always flopping around and looks awkward on his hand. It's Almost like he's wearing someone else's ring. He should just put it away, rather than embarrass himself.

Plenty of champions don't wear their rings. No shame in that at all. Bradshaw never wears them, nor does Ronnie Lott. Never really see Montana wearing one, either. Oh, and don't forget John Elway.....he lost his first Super Bowl ring AT THE RING CEREMOMY. His wife noticed it laying on the table and came up to him and asked "...missing something?"

So Gruden, for the love of God (not to mention dressing well) just put your ring away and buy a decent watch.

On the rest of your points, dralec, I totally agree with you!

[Karlsgems]

And another thing...... Many champions CANT get their rings on. Their hands get too banged up and swollen. Just look at Howie Long, for instance. Sometimes he wears his ring on his pinky.....and other times he wears it on his ring finger. You know darn well that's due to the damage to his hands ( and the variable nature of human hands to swell and shrink).

You also see a lot of Michael Strahan on TV. Look at how banged up his hands are! His fingers point in different directions, I :censored: you not. I can't recall if he can get his ring on, but you don't see him wear it much. I seem to recall he had it on during Super Bowl week, but I might be mistaken.

So I don't think it's a big deal for Gruden to stop wearing/abusing his ring. Honestly, it's painful to look at him wear that thing so awkwardly. It's distracting as hell.

Ok, rant over. You can tell it's been bothering me for awhile. Only you other ring junkies will understand where I'm coming from!

[dralec]

Hey Karl I hear you loud and clear man! Agree with everything you said.

At least Gruden has a better matching watch tonight. He may have read your comments on this site after all! Lol

[FiddySicks]

It's such a shame the Bucs had to put the trophy on their rings rather than the helmet logo. That's by far the most disappointing Super Bowl ring I've ever seen. Especially as a Bucs fan.

[ridenlow71]

It's such a shame the Bucs had to put the trophy on their rings rather than the helmet logo. That's by far the most disappointing Super Bowl ring I've ever seen. Especially as a Bucs fan.

I agree the logo would have been bad ass. Here's a picture of the Peoria Pirates AFL ring. Sorry for the crappy picture. But looks good with the logo.

[sports-rings.com]

It's such a shame the Bucs had to put the trophy on their rings rather than the helmet logo. That's by far the most disappointing Super Bowl ring I've ever seen. Especially as a Bucs fan.

I agree the logo would have been bad ass. Here's a picture of the Peoria Pirates AFL ring. Sorry for the crappy picture. But looks good with the logo.

You guys are totally right-on! I have seen and admired that Pirates AFL ring for a long time. I never gave much thought to the Bucs ring, until you mentioned it. The Raider rings are in high demand because of the badd-ass guy on the shank, and the Bucs logo (with a little red, the way the Giants did a little blue on their last ring) would have been a home run!

[dralec]

Hey Mike thanks for posting updates on the Jim Brown ring.

It seems very likely now the ring was stolen and that he had in fact never sold it or given it to anyone.

I though Leland was one of the more reputable auction houses. The 45+ grams 14K Super Bowl ring was valued at $1000.!? The cost of gold alone is more than $1000 much less the fact that it was a championship ring, and then of all people, it was Jim Brown's ring! "It was all done with a hand shake"! Really?

When you realize even Pawn shops have higher standard than memorabilia dealers, you realize what a crook most these guys are.

If I walked into any pawn shop with a SB ring and told them I got it on a hand shake they would call the policed and tell them I have a stolen ring. Somehow to multiple reputable auction houses it seemed perfectly fine that a "distant relative" of Jim Brown had bough the ring for 0.01% of the actual value "with a hand shake". The greedy bastards turn around and sell the ring for $110,000.00 and try to destroy Jim Brown's reputation. Hope they all go to hell.

[sports-rings.com]

Hey Mike thanks for posting updates on the Jim Brown ring.

It seems very likely now the ring was stolen and that he had in fact never sold it or given it to anyone.

I though Leland was one of the more reputable auction houses. The 45+ grams 14K Super Bowl ring was valued at $1000.!? The cost of gold alone is more than $1000 much less the fact that it was a championship ring, and then of all people, it was Jim Brown's ring! "It was all done with a hand shake"! Really?

When you realize even Pawn shops have higher standard than memorabilia dealers, you realize what a crook most these guys are.

If I walked into any pawn shop with a SB ring and told them I got it on a hand shake they would call the policed and tell them I have a stolen ring. Somehow to multiple reputable auction houses it seemed perfectly fine that a "distant relative" of Jim Brown had bough the ring for 0.01% of the actual value "with a hand shake". The greedy bastards turn around and sell the ring for $110,000.00 and try to destroy Jim Brown's reputation. Hope they all go to hell.

Not sure if you heard, but Josh and Lelands is suing Jim Brown. They claim that Brown and sold or given the ring to a relative or abandond the ring (in the legal sense).

In the filing, it was mentioned that Lelands purchased the ring for 110,000. To me that seems like a big risk, I'm not sure they would have gotten more money than that for the ring at auction.

Here's the crazy thing. According to Scott Welkowsky, Jim Brown is the name on the salesman samples for that ring There are very few salesman sample rings around, but anyone having one with proper markings can pop a real center dimaond in it and claim it was Jim Brown's ring. Jim would not be able to tell if it was his ring or not, especailly if he had not seen the ring in decades.

So according to Scott Welkowsky, there is significant risk in buying that ring at auction.

I don't know what to think, I'm just passing along what I heard.

[tubby34]

What qualifies as a good watch, curious. I have a black wedding band.

[Mac the Knife]

Plenty of champions don't wear their rings. No shame in that at all. Bradshaw never wears them, nor does Ronnie Lott.

There's reason for that. In Bradshaw's case, he doesn't have any of his four. He gave away his first three to relatives, and lost the fourth in his last divorce settlement. In Lott's case, his hands are so mangled from his playing days (including a digit he had amputated just so he could keep playing) that I doubt any ring would fit properly.