Mustangs unveil championship rings

The Madison Mustangs recently received their 2009 Ironman Football League Championship rings. This is the second ring in 2 years that the Mustangs have received; and both were made by Jostens.

Jostens is best known for making most of the Super Bowl and NCAA championship rings, along with high school state championship and class rings.

The ring was designed again by Mustangs Director of Football Operations and Coach Adam Smith. With help from Jostens sales rep. JC Fish and their design staff the Mustangs championship ring turned out fantastic. "These are the best looking championship rings I have ever been a part of." said Fish upon delivery of the rings, "they're really awesome!"

Smith, after looking at many different styles of rings, came up with the idea of crossing three previous championship rings to combine into what would be the best the IFL has ever seen. "I knew I wanted something with two large stones to represent the two championships we've won. I originally liked the Rams (St. Louis, NFL) Super Bowl ring face and stones in the name style combined with New England's 2nd Super Bowl ring style of 2 trophies, but it would have been too expensive for us to have the stones in the name. Then I saw the Florida Gators 2nd National Championship basketball design and loved the design of the 2 trophies and logo. So we kept the Rams face and size and added the Florida design, taking out the basketballs and logo and adding more of a "football" shaped stone and our logo. The Jostens design department added the gold layout around the trophies and logo for that "pop" effect."

The top is highlighted by two marquise cut stones to represent footballs and two emerald cut stones representing trophy bases. The trophies and logo are surrounded by 42 smaller stones that make the face sparkle. The side designs were taken from the Patriots 2nd Super Bowl ring; featuring scrolls with team sayings, helmet with logo, and stones on side of the ring. The Mustangs ring sides are highlighted on the name side with a scroll saying "1-0 24 straight", stones representing "0" for the year dates of their current winning streak '08-'09, and their logo etched on the side of a football helmet. The other side has the Ironbowl XIII logo with both teams score and the stars on the logo represented by two stones, another scroll with "back-to-back" above the logo and "champions" below. In all this years' championship ring has a total of 46 stones, 10 more than the previous years' ring.

"It was a long process but Jostens proved why they're the company to call when it comes to championship rings. They did an excellent job with the ring. The way the ring looks makes last year just that much more special. When our player's first reaction, when they open the box, is WOW, then I know we did our job."