U.S.

Good Samaritan Returns Payton's Ring

November 18, 2001 / 12:09 PM EST / AP

A long-missing Super Bowl ring belonging to the late Chicago Bears star Walter Payton was returned Saturday to the running back's wife.

Phil Hong, a student at Purdue University, found the ring under his couch Tuesday night. Hong is from the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, the same suburb where the ring was last seen in 1996.

"My dog was playing with one of its toys and it got stuck under the couch," Hong said. "I went to get the toy out of there and the ring was sitting right there. It must have fallen out of the couch."

The ring is encrusted with 41 diamonds and has an engraving of Payton's name and a capital "C" for Chicago.

Payton, the Bears' Hall of Fame running back, won the ring in 1986 after the Bears' 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. He lost track of it while volunteering with the Hoffman Estates High School boys basketball team in the spring of 1996. He eventually purchased a duplicate ring.

Payton died Nov. 1, 1999, of complications of liver cancer.

Hong went to the South Barrington home of Payton's widow, Connie, to return the ring. The two met in the foyer shortly before Hong pulled a small box from his pocket.

"Oh, you put it in a box," Payton said with a smile.

She then gave Hong a hug and said that the ring looked brand new.

Hong said he received the couch from a Hoffman Estates friend, Joe Abruzzo, when he left for college, and he noted that his friend's older brother, Nick Abruzzo, was a member of the basketball team that Payton was helping in 1996.

Payton was reportedly talking to the team about the importance of trust and faith when he handed the ring to Nick Abruzzo and told him to hold it for a few days as a symbol of trust. The team members reportedly passed the ring around for luck in the Abruzzo basement and somehow lost track of it.

After he found the ring, Hong said he began making plans to return it to Payton's wife. Hong said he had kept the ring with him at all times.

"It's not my place to hold this ring," Hong said. "Growing up in Chicago, Walter Payton was my life-long idol. This ring was what he had worked for his whole life. After the tragedy that happened to Walter, the ring needs to be back in the family."

Jeff Shiver, a college football scout for the Bears who lives in West Lafayette, said Bears fans will welcome the return of the ring.

"God bless him. That's just awesome," Shiver said. "The city of Chicago will be so excited about this because Walter was so revered up there."