Woodruff family to get share of championship ring sale

For close to 60 years, Lewis Woodruff ’s family has wondered what happened to the ring the late Georgia Tech assistant coach received as part of the Yellow Jackets’ 1952 team that went 12-0 and won a share of the national championship. Family members finally know: It’s being auctioned.

Lewis Woodruff Jr., a 61-year-old salesman who lives in Lawrenceville, said the family has believed the ring was stolen in a home robbery when Woodruff Jr. was a toddler. It remained a mystery until Wednesday. After an AJC story reported on the auction of the ring and its likely original recipient — Woodruff ’s initials, LCF, are engraved on the inside of the ring — a friend of the younger Woodruff heard it being discussed on local sports radio and contacted Woodruff.

“I always heard legends of the ring, and nobody could ever find it again, and they thought it was gone with all the other stuff,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff got in touch with Lelands auction house, and the company has offered him a share of the ring’s sale. Woodruff acknowledged that, without any proof it was stolen, it would be difficult to make a claim on it.

“Of course, God only knows where the police report is,” Woodruff said.

Lewis Woodruff Sr. coached from 1947-67 at Tech, nearly the entirety of Bobby Dodd’s 22-year tenure and one year into Bud Carson’s.