For avid model train enthusiast Tim Roycroft, 16, his high school class ring choices were simple.
The sophomore at Immaculate Conception High School in Elmhurst, who has been collecting miniature trains since age 7, bypassed class-ring standards such as mascots, crests and insignia.
“I went with a steam engine,” said Roycroft, of Lombard. “I had the choice of a couple locomotives, but I went with a steam engine. They’re powerful, massive in person and traditional.”
Just as the days when boys would dangle their steady girl’s class ring from a necklace and girls would wrap yards of yarn around a boyfriend’s ring in an attempt to fit the monstrosity on their dainty fingers are gone, so too may be the days of voting for a single “class” ring.
The recent trends and buzzwords in the class ring business are customization, personalization and individuality.
No matter a student’s tastes, hobbies, heritage or aspirations, there’s a way to preserve it on a class ring.
Whether he or she loves in-line skating, dreams of a career in architecture or lives by the astrological calendar, there’s a ring style out there.
“The options are truly limitless,” said Kris Costopoulos, director of student activities at Lyons Township High School in La Grange.
“Back 20 years ago, when I was in high school,” said the 1976 Oak Park-River Forest High School graduate, “we could choose the size and shape of our rings and maybe the color of the stone. We had the school’s insignia and our graduation date and that was it.
“Today there are literally thousands of things students can put on their rings. We have around 740 students this year at Lyons Township, and we’ll have about 740 rings. Rarely will two student rings be alike.”
According to Jim Cranley, a Chicago-area sales representative for ringmaker Herff Jones, prices for this keepsake jewelry can start at about $100 for an alloy ring, but the most common, in 10-karat gold, starts at about $250 for a girl’s model and $325 for a boy’s. In 14-karat gold, the same rings would be $350 and $450, respectively.
Most school administrators select a standard ring style, which comes with the school’s crest on one side, the year of graduation and/or mascot on the other. The majority of Chicago-area schools then allow students to drop the standard school options and customize their rings to their particular tastes. Some schools allow only slight alterations, while others give students the ability to completely customize their rings.
And with the power of the Internet, Web-savvy high schoolers can design and preview their ring options on two of the top three ring companies’ Web sites: herffjones.com, the Web site of the ring company based in Indianapolis, and balfour.com., which links to the Austin, Texas-based company.
“It allows kids to see their options instantly,” Cranley said.
The multitude of options seems to bring out the creativity in students, said Pat Buschette, who covers the Chicago and northern Illinois territory for Jostens, a ring company headquartered in Minneapolis.
“The students are just so creative with what they come up with,” said the 11-year sales rep. “If it’s in good taste, most schools will allow it.”
But Buschette also takes pride in saving students from rash decisions.
“A number of students ask to put their boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s name on their ring, and we attempt to talk them out of it,” he said.
Granting rare requests such as Roycroft’s trains ranks as the best part of the job, Buschette added.
“Every year we get a really unique request like the locomotives,” he said. “It really makes a student’s day when you can deliver what they really want.”
Along with two locomotives for Roycroft to choose from, Buschette has provided Chicago-area students with a dove of peace, a whale, a dolphin, a nautical symbol used in sailboat racing and a particular rose variety for a student named Rose.
One of Buschette’s most unusual customizations was not for a class ring but for a 1999 Illinois state championship ring, produced for students at Providence High School in New Lenox.
“The Providence wrestlers wanted the sign language gesture for `I love you’ on their championship rings,” Buschette said.
According to coach Keith Healy, the casting of the small hand on the side of the ring with the little finger, index finger and thumb extended didn’t represent love of team, squad loyalty or Celtic pride. It was a reference to the rock band Motley Crue.
The night before the team’s state championship meet in Rock Island, the squad literally ran into the band while getting on the elevator at their hotel in Bettendorf, Iowa.
“The elevator doors opened and there was bass player Nikki Sixx,” said wrestler and Motley Crue fan Matt Kucala, 17, of New Lenox. “We started talking and I explained why we were in town.”
Sixx, on his way to the band’s tour stop in Bettendorf, offered the team passes to the concert.
“We had our choice between front row or backstage passes,” Kucala said. “It was unbelievable.”
The team was coming off a tough match three nights before, Healy said.
“And we were going for our third consecutive title and there was a lot of pressure on the meet the next morning,” he said. “We thought that the show was a great way to break the tension and take the edge off for the kids.”
The team stayed for three songs and a handful of the diehard fans on the team actually made it out on stage with the band.
“It really pumped us all up,” Kucala said. “The next day, we went out and won state. To put it modestly, it was a nice weekend.”
The hand gesture, which appeared on the band’s second album, was a natural addition to the team ring.
“Just as each team and each season is different, so are the rings,” said Healy, whose team is pursuing its fifth consecutive state title this season. “Those kids will never forget that concert or that meet and that’s what championships and class rings are really all about. They’re about preserving memories.”
Not all students are rushing to place rock band references or any other unique symbol on their rings.
In fact Cranley, a 15-year ring industry veteran and third-generation ring salesman, has noticed a recent trend in students passing on individualization in favor of a traditional, class-specific ring.
“Although customization is big and has been a growing trend for the last 20 years, I see the pendulum swinging back,” he said. “Kids want to show their school pride.”
The whole “customization” trend and possible return to tradition came as news to Carole Manning, assistant principal at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago.
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Manning said. “At Ignatius, our school rings have changed little in the school’s 130-year history.”
“We have the options like other schools,” said St. Ignatius student body president Drew Beres, 17, of Chicago. “But nobody wants them.”
Beres recently met with a handful of Ignatius alumni from the 1940s and ’50s. During the gathering, former and present Ignatius students compared class rings.
“Theirs were almost identical to mine,” Beres said. “And that’s something special. It’s special to have a link to that kind of tradition. Tradition is just a part of everything we do here . . . 130 years of history is nothing to mess with.”
