Kansas student lost his class ring during a snowball fight with his future wife: 53 years later, when campus workers dug it out, the couple happened to be passing through the city
What are the odds of finding something lost for 53 years?
asserted
odds → lose → years
Now imagine it being discovered when its owner was driving through the same city, with the same person involved in the half-century-old incident, on the same stretch of highway.
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owner → imagine → highway
At some point, the coincidences start to feel almost impossible.
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coincidences → start → point
And yet, that’s exactly what happened.
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what → ’ → ?
Jim Burkhart lost his class ring to a snowball fight in 1973, while he was a student at Dodge City Community College (DC3).
asserted
he → lose → College
He wasn’t alone when he lost it.
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he → lose → it
Marilyn Crockett was there, the woman he'd throw a snowball at with his left hand, the hand the ring sat on.
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ring → throw → hand
She was there when it vanished into the Kansas dirt.
asserted
it → vanish → dirt
Fifty-three years later, when the phone call came, she was there again, sitting next to him in the car, this time as his wife.
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she → come → wife
The irrigation workers unearthed the ring while they were repairing the ground.
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they → unearth → ground
This lost-and-found story gets so much better that, if you tried to pitch it as fiction, a filmmaker might send it back with a note: ‘Too many coincidences.
uncertain
filmmaker → lose → note
The audience won’t buy it.’
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audience → buy → it
The ring lost in the 1970s
Pic credit: Lance Ziesch
Jim Burkhart, a football player at DC3 in the early 1970s, lost the ring somewhere during the autumn of 1973.
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Burkhart → lose → 1973
He was outside with Marilyn Crockett, the woman who would become his wife, and they were fooling around in the snow.
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they → become → snow
Burkhart threw a snowball at her using his left hand, the same hand he wore his ring on.
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he → throw → ring
“I was feeling a little ornery… and I threw a snowball at her with my left hand,” Burkhart said, according to a news release by the college.
uncertain
Burkhart → feel → college
He wore the ring on his left hand because of a childhood injury on his right.
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He → wear → right
“She doesn’t remember if I hit her.
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I → remember → her
I probably did.
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I → do → ?
I had pretty good aim.”
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I → have → aim
Whether or not the snowball reached the target, the ring surely flew off with the snowball.
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ring → reach → snowball
They searched the surrounding area.
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They → search → area
“We went back, looked a couple of times, and never did find the ring.
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We → go → ring
And we would always kid about it.
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we → kid → it
But yeah, we lost it that day,” he recalled.
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he → lose → it
After the search turned up nothing, the couple moved on with their lives.
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couple → turn → lives
Campus workers unearth the ring
Years passed by: more than half a century, to be precise.
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Years → unearth → century
Burkhart went on with his life, and the ring remained submerged in layers of dirt.
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ring → go → dirt
On August 7, Daemian Serna and Craig Mellecker, members of the DC3 grounds crew, were finishing up excavation work near the Administration Building when Serna spotted something shining in the soil.
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Serna → finish → soil
“I thought it was a gold hose clamp, which we don’t have.
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we → think → which
So, my interest was pretty piqued,” Serna said.
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Serna → say → ?
But once he brushed the soil off, he realised it was a ring.
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it → brush → soil
“It said Kinsley High School.
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It → say → School
It had a little coyote on it and 1973.
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It → have → it
Then, I cleaned it a little more, and I saw two initials, one on each side, J and B.
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I → clean → side
Craig right away looks over, and he goes, ‘Oh, somebody’s going to want that.’”
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somebody → look → that
After finishing their work, they called Kinsley High School.
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they → finish → School
“Within an hour, he had a name and a story, and he got in contact with Jim right away,” Serna said.
asserted
Serna → have → Jim
During their work, they stumble upon lots of things, but not something like this.
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they → stumble → this
“Usually, I just find old soda cans or trash in the dirt.
asserted
I → find → dirt
…and 26 more, not listed.
