It has been over 40 years since John Schmitt has worn his Super Bowl ring. Unfortunately, it hasn't been by choice. But now Schmitt will have the opportunity to once again sport the important piece of jewelry.
Schmitt was the starting center for the New York Jets, snapping the ball to Joe Namath, who guaranteed their win over the Baltimore Colts in the first official Super Bowl in 1969. In February of 1971, Schmitt took a vacation to Waikiki and signed up for surfing lessons. Still wearing the ring he and his teammates earned two years earlier, Schmitt got back to shore when his lesson had concluded and noticed something was different.
"I never thought about the fact that if you stay out in the water for 5 or 6 hours, your hands shrink and the ring fell off about a quarter mile out from the shore," Schmitt told Hawaii News Now.
"I got a snorkel and some flippers and I went out and I dove until I was blue. I'm not kidding you. It must have been three hours I was out there looking," Schmitt said. "I couldn't find it anywhere. I was just exhausted. I virtually could not swim or flip my legs anymore and I just went in broken hearted."
The ring, Schmitt's most prized possession, was lost on the ocean floor somewhere beyond the Royal Hawaiin Hotel.
But a Waikiki lifeguard, John Ernstberg, found that the ring had washed ashore and brought it home with him, not thinking any of its significance. The ring was placed into a box and has remained in the Ernstberg family since John's death in 1991. His great niece, Cindy Saffery has since inherited her great uncle's house, including the box.
Curiosity moved her and her husband to open it and take the ring to a jeweler where it was discovered to be an authentic 1969 Super Bowl ring. The jeweler, Brenda Reichel, recalls when she contacted Schmitt to give him the good news.
"I went looking for it and never found it, and you mean to tell me after 40 years someone has my ring?"
Saffery’s husband, Samuel, knows what the ring must mean to Schmitt.
"It's a legacy. He put a lot of hard work into this to earn this. This is not something that you just can buy off the street. This is something that you earn, so for Mr. Schmitt, he earned this ring so by right it'll make me feel good to put it personally back into his hand."
