LI standout Schmitt finds Super Bowl ring

John Schmitt, a former Long Island high school standout and member of the 1969 Super Bowl champion Jets, located the championship ring he lost over 40 years ago, according to Yahoo! Sports.

Schmitt, who went to high school at Seton Hall in Patchogue and then attended Hofstra University, lost his ring a few years after Super Bowl III while taking surfing lessons off Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, according to the story.

John Ernstberg, a Waikiki lifeguard, found the ring years later and put it away in a box. After the death of Ernstberg and his wife, Ernstberg’s belongings, including the ring, were inherited by his great niece Cindy Saffrey and her husband. They had the ring checked out by a professional jeweler, according to Yahoo!, who determined it was a real Super Bowl ring worth up to to $10,000.

Rather than sell the ring, Saffrey and Reichel contacted the Jets’ front office, who got in touch with Schmitt at his home on Long Island.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Schmitt told Hawaii News Now. “I mean I honestly couldn’t believe it. I mean 40 years, that that ring was found is a bloody miracle. It really is a miracle, you know.”

Schmitt has offered to fly the Saffreys from Hawaii to New York to thank them in person.

You can read the original story by Yahoo! Sports’ Ben Maller by clicking here.

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