An urgent message on Twitter sent by a total stranger was the dumb luck that Cameron Mills needed to finally see
his 1998 National Championship ring once again.
The ring was stolen from an open house while his younger brother was in the process of moving. At the time, the police could do nothing to find the ring as all the leads turned up empty.
The mysterious man on Twitter said he found it a year ago in a field, and thought it was a class ring. He and his wife had even run ads in the paper trying to find the owner.
Mark Story at the Herald-Leader has more.
In a sense, even after his '98 championship ring went missing, Mills was fortunate. He was also a member of Kentucky's 1996 NCAA champions. He still had the ring that UK gave the players on that team.
But Mills was a seldom-used (16 minutes all season) sophomore walk-on for the '96 championship team. On the '98 champions, Mills was a valuable senior sharp-shooter who hit two clutch three-pointers for UK in the second half of its title-game victory over Utah.
"The '98 ring definitely meant more to me," Mills said. "I felt like I actually played a role in earning it. The '96 ring, I'm proud of it, but that belongs to the guys who did the playing that really earned it."
As an evangelist, buying a replacement ring was never an option for Mills. He said he wouldn’t have felt right spending money for a new one, “I'd tell [the congregation] how much it meant to be part of a team that earned the right to wear it. But then I'd always tell them that championship ring didn't mean nearly as much to me as a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
It’s great that the couple who found the ring did the right thing by returning it. But my only question is:
What part of “Kentucky National Champions” and “Mills” on the side led you to believe it was a class ring? Whatever the case may be, it’s great that he has his ring back at last.
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