At the height of the A&M’s double overtime win against Tennessee, a student sitting on third deck excessively celebrated, causing his slightly oversized Aggie Ring to slip off his hand and fly through the air to land second deck — adding another entry to the dozens of Aggie Rings in the lost-and-found database.
To Aggies, losing an Aggie Ring is more important than misplacing an expensive piece of jewelry or a prized college memento. With this understanding in mind, the Association of Former Students takes an active role in reconnecting lost and found Aggie Rings with their owners through online and in-person measures.
Kathryn Greenwade, vice president of the Association of Former Students and Class of 1988, said the Association recognizes the high value of an Aggie Ring and works diligently to return rings to their rightful owners.
“We know what the Aggie Ring means to an Aggie, and we know that they want to be reunited with it,” Greenwade said. “Certainly, if a ring is lost or stolen you can order a new ring, but there’s something about your very first Aggie Ring. We want to do what we can to reunite that with the owner.”
Aggies lose rings more often than expected. In fact, in 2015 the Association reports 79 of 1,966 lost rings have been found and in the 2016 calendar year, there have been 95 of 1,697 rings reported found.
When an Aggie reports a lost ring, Greenwade said the Association has a simple system to best reunite the owner with his or her lost Aggie gold.
“An individual can call us at the Association of Former Students and speak to the ring office to report a lost or found Aggie Ring,” Greenwade said. “They can also go onto aggienetwork.com/ring and there will be an option to report a lost or found ring as well. Where we really get involved is when someone finds a ring, and then we take an active role in trying to locate that Aggie and reunite them with that ring.”
Greenwade said this modest approach to connect lost and found rings to current and former Aggies works, and numerous stories confirms these effective measures.
“We had a former student, Class of ’88, who was in Dallas on business, and he lost his ring in a hotel room. He had given up,” Greenwade said. “A couple of years later, someone is staying in that very same hotel room and they find the ring behind the mirror.”
In sharing this particular account, Greenwade offered hope for discovery even in the most distressing circumstances.
“Well, the person who found it was a Longhorn, actually, and he was a pilot for Southwest,” Greenwade said. “He called a friend of his, an Aggie who was also a pilot for Southwest, and said, ‘I know this means something to someone.’ We were able to reunite it that way, and I think it’s something this individual never expected it would be found again.”