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!lessen hardware company
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Sta ff pho tos by Ang ie Baan
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Douglas and Brian Schubot examine a ring.
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Lion Fans
_
The Schubots would like nothing better than
to design another championship ring.
A L DW E N
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56
September 13 • 2007
Fifty years ago in 1957, when the
Lions last won a championship, some
within the Lions' organization thought
The Schubot family has a lot invest-
rings would be redundant. So the
ed in the Detroit Lions.
players received solid gold Longines
Just look in the vault of their Troy
watches with the words "Detroit Lions"
jewelry store. Doug, Sydelle and Brian
on the dial in team color Honolulu
Schubot will be happy to show you the blue letters.
mold and wax impressions for rings
Ten years later, in the 1960s, one
that were made for the 1957 National
of the 1957 alumni decided that he
Football League champions.
wanted his teammates to have a ring,
And if you look in the stands near
just like the 1952 and 1953 teams. The
the 50-yard line at most Detroit
Josten company had designed the 1957
Lions home games, you can see the
ring. Jules Schubot, a representative
for Josten, found that the molds
and impressions had been
destroyed. So Schubot came up
with his own design, based on
the '52 and '53 models.
The rings, Doug Schubot
believes, probably cost $700 to
$800 apiece.
Wax molds of a football and the 1.957 champi-
Today, the National Football
onship ring, alongside a current ring
League takes responsibility for
the rings for the Super Bowl
winners. But the Schubots con-
Schubots, their friends and clients
tinue to design tie bars and cuff links
enjoying 117 season tickets purchased to commemorate the winners and they
by the Schubot family.
make Lions' watches and cuff links for
While Doug's father, Jules R.
the Ford family.
Schubot, had the family business in
Brian Schubot would love to create
downtown Detroit's Metropolitan
some designs for a winning Lions'
Building from 1940-1975, Doug's uncle team, but was concerned by their poor
Maurie served as the Lions' box office
performance during the exhibition
treasurer (1951-1975). When the Lions season.
won the NFL's "World Championship"
"Of course, two years ago," he said,
in both 1952 and 1953, Jules was asked "nobody would have predicted that the
by the William Clay Ford family, the
Tigers would be in the World Series
Lions' owners, to design rings for the
last year, either."
players.