Gaudy Or Not, Championship Rings Are The Cherished Spoils Of Victory

The biggest ring was probably the Packers' for Super Bowl II in 1968. It had a single-carat diamond on the top, two half-carat diamonds on the sides, weighed 30 pennyweight (the 49ers' most recent was 32) and cost $1,900. It would run about 10 times that today. The biggest ring size on record is the 20—almost four inches around—belonging to San Francisco defensive end Lawrence Pillers. The second biggest was the size 19� made for Bronko Nagurski to commemorate his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.

In a 1983 interview with Nagurski, who is now 76 and has been painfully arthritic for many years, the subject of his ring came up. "I can't get it on anymore," said Nagurski, digging into a front pants pocket, "but I still carry it around with me."