Jon Mark Beilue: Do the right thing with the ring

Lady Buff ring, missing for 8 years, finds its way back to owner

When the recently married Holly Britten went to the restroom at an Amarillo restaurant in 2012, she took off two rings at the sink when she washed her hands.

One was a wedding ring. The other was a ring signifying three Lone Star Conference basketball tournament titles when she was a guard for the West Texas A&M Lady Buffs from 2006-2010. She put on the wedding ring and returned to her table, but as for the other?

When she and husband Tyler returned home, she realized the ring was not on her finger. It was a nice ring too. The WT was in maroon with some diamonds around it. Her maiden name – Isaacs – was engraved along with the record of “30-4” and “3-peat.” There was also a basketball going through the net.

Holly checked her pockets where she sometimes put the ring. She checked throughout the house. She checked around and under the car seat. No, no and no.

The next day, it hit her – the restaurant. She was hopeful, but management said, sorry, but nothing had been turned in.

“I was sick about it,” Holly said. “I have two other rings for each LSC championship, but this was a little more special because it was my senior year.  We had some ups and downs that year, but I felt like we persevered. It was a different ring. It was different.”

There was always the outside chance the ring might make its way to her, but five months later, they moved to Temple when Tyler began a residency at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center and then on to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for an orthopedic fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Once you pack up and move like that,” she said, “you assume it’s a goner.”

Some eight year later, Vince “Vee” Salinas was doing what he likes to do in his spare time – rummaging through thrift stores looking for hidden bargains or unusual items.

Salinas, 60, played basketball for legendary coach Kenneth Cleveland at Dimmitt in the late 1970s. He graduated from WT in 1986 with a degree in physical education, but he did not coach.

Instead, he spent time as a counselor with the Texas Rehabilitation Commission and later director of Amarillo College’s High School Equivalency Program, which identified high school dropouts, prepared them for their GED and provided a path to college.

In other words, Salinas had a heart to help those who could use some help. Now that he was retired, Salinas could spend more time pursuing his art work and combing through thrift stores.

On this Sept. 26, he was at the Goodwill store at I-40 and Bell Street, one of his frequent haunts. There was a man there with a ring.

“Hey, do you know anything about rings?”

“What do you mean?” Salinas said.

“Are these real diamonds?”

“I don’t know, let me look at it a little closer,” Salinas said.

When Salinas did, he didn’t notice the diamonds as much as the “3-peat,” the record, the WT insignia, and the name of “Isaacs.”

“Wow, this is a Lady Buffs ring,” Salinas said. “Where did you get it?”

The man told Salinas his wife “found it somewhere.” A sense of doing the right thing kicked into high gear.

“I said, ‘Listen, this belongs to someone and it means more to her than you can imagine,” he said. “Some blood and tears, some discipline and sportsmanship went into the ring. It means a lot to someone.”

Salinas offered $20 just to get possession of the ring. The man didn’t want to do that, and walked away. They remained in the store. Salinas couldn’t let it go.

He tried again – what about $50? The counter was $100. Salinas said he couldn’t do that. Finally, it was agreed to $50. Salinas ran across the street to an ATM to get some cash, and the ring exchanged hands yet another time.

The only thing – and the best thing – Salinas knew to do was call Jerry Schaeffer, also a former Dimmitt Bobcat, but also a former coach and ardent WT supporter.

“Vee asked me if I knew of a Lady Buff with the last name of ‘Isaacs,’ and … we thought of Holly Isaacs,” Schaeffer said.

Schaeffer called WT athletic director Michael McBroom, who said Isaacs’ husband, Dr. Tyler Britten, had just started to practice in Amarillo with Dr. Tyler Cooper, an orthopedic surgeon and former Buff basketball player.

As fate may have it, Cooper recently performed surgery on Schaeffer’s nephew, who had Cooper’s cell number. Schaeffer called Cooper.

“Hey,” Cooper asked his new colleague, “is Holly missing a conference championship ring?”

Cue the Twilight Zone music.

“It’s bizarre, just bizarre,” Holly said. “It’s really crazy that we just get back to Amarillo and we get this phone call about the ring. I can’t believe it.”

All parties – Vee, Holly, Jerry and Buffie Schaeffer, and Jerry’s father, Stanley – met at the Blue Sky restaurant on Coulter Street on Oct. 1. After an eight-year journey to Who Knows Where And Back, the ring made it back to the rightful finger of a woman who did sweat for that jewelry.

Holly and her husband and three children wanted to return to the Panhandle area to begin Tyler’s career because of the genuine goodness of people. It didn’t take long to get that affirmation.

“We go through life and sometimes we do some wrong things, but we also have many chances to do the right thing too,” Salinas said. “I make mistakes like everyone else, but I was taught to do the right thing too. But this feels good. This moved me. I told Jerry later, ‘This is what life is all about.’”

One thing about the power of doing the right thing, the power of going the extra mile – it’s always just as rewarding for the giver as it is for the recipient.

 Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.