When someone from Siena College's human resources department told Greg Dashnaw an anonymous man had dropped off an old championship ring he found in his basement, the longtime athletic trainer assumed the call came to him since he had the best chance of identifying its owner.
Only after the voice at the other end of line began describing the ring did Dashnaw consider the unlikely possibility it could be one of the two he had stolen more than two decades ago.
The ring Dashnaw received as head trainer for Siena's 1988 league championship basketball team left out the "n" in his last name. That matched the year and name on the ring dropped off at the human resources office last week.
"I sprinted right up there to see the ring," Dashnaw said. "I was nervous and hoping but I hadn't seen it in 23 years. They gave it to me and I couldn't believe it. It was my ring."
Dashnaw attaches great sentimental significance to the ring because it serves as a symbol of one of the most successful eras of Siena basketball.
In 1988, the Saints captured their first-ever league title and earned an NIT bid for the first time. That served as a precursor to an even more memorable 1989 season marred by a measles outbreak so severe the team played a handful of games in completely empty arenas to guard against the spread of disease. Siena nonetheless shook that distraction off to repeat as conference champs, reach the NCAA tournament for the first time and upset third-seeded Stanford in the opening round.
Dashnaw was proud enough of both those seasons that he displayed his 1988 NIT ring and 1989 NCAA tournament ring side-by-side on his dresser in the Albany apartment he rented. Both vanished from his apartment in 1991 while Dashnaw was out of town on a basketball road trip.
"They were pretty much the only things I had at the time that were worth anything," Dashnaw said. "I don't know if someone broke in or I left the door unlocked, but that was the last time I'd seen either of them."
Though Dashnaw looked into replacing both rings, the $500 apiece price tag was too steep for him at the time. Nonetheless, their absence continued to gnaw at him over the years, especially since the Harrisville, N.Y., native has remained at Siena for 29 years and has grown deeply attached to the school.
Dashnaw mentioned the second ring to the human resources staffer who called him in case it also had been returned. No luck. He also told the Albany Times-Herald's Siena beat writer about it when the reporter did a story about the discovery of the 1988 ring for Tuesday morning's newspaper.
Even so, Dashnaw was still feeling fortunate to recover one of the rings when he received a call from a local police sergeant at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
"He said he needed to talk to me about something, and I was kind of scared," Dashnaw said. "I was like, 'What did I do wrong?' I met him outside because I didn't want him coming in the training room and everyone thinking he's arresting me or something. I knew I didn't do anything wrong, but the last thing I wanted to do was embarrass the college.
When the police sergeant arrived, he asked Dashnaw to produce his ID. Seconds later, he pulled a baggie out of his pocket containing Dashnaw's 1989 NCAA tournament ring.
"He said, 'Somebody saw the article this morning, came into the station and anonymously dropped this off,'" Dashnaw said. "I was just shaking at that point."
Not enough time has passed for Dashnaw to fully process his good fortune, but he's elated to have back both of the rings stolen from him so long ago. He insists he doesn't care who the anonymous donors were, nor does he harbor any ill will toward the thief.
"I don't hold any grudges," Dashnaw said. "Who knows what might have happened over the years? I could have lost them somewhere else. I could have had a house fire. I got them back. That's all that matters."
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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