35 Years Later, Bradenton Wrestler Reunited With Championship Ring

BRADENTON, FL — More than 35 years after winning the Florida state high school wrestling championship in his weight class, a former Bayshore High School athlete has been reunited with his championship wrestling ring.

The ring was given to Bradenton native Richard Gullett — who took home the 1986 state championship title in the 157-pound weight class as a sophomore — by his personal wrestling coach, Ron Jones.

While Jones coached at Sarasota High School, he also trained wrestlers from throughout Manatee County and the Sarasota area after school and during the offseason. When Bayshore didn't give Gullett a ring for his championship title, Jones paid for one himself.

“My school didn’t purchase rings for its athletes. Sarasota was more about their athletes than Bayshore was,” Gullett told Patch.

Gullett didn’t have the ring for long before he lost it, though. Not long after he won the championship, his ring was stolen from his old Mustang while he attended wrestling practice one afternoon at Bayshore.

“I put my necklaces and my rings in a little hidey thing, but I guess it wasn’t a very good hidey thing,” said Gullett. “Someone broke in while I was in practice and stole my rings and my necklaces.”

Jones kept in touch with Gullett into adulthood, visiting him regularly at his fresh seafood truck, Gulley’s, in Parrish every few weeks. Despite their friendship, Gullett didn’t learn that Jones had been holding onto his rings for years — though he’s not sure for exactly how long — until the coach’s death Feb. 2 at age 70.

In March, Jones’ wife, Ruthie, surprised Gullett with the rings after finding them among her husband’s belongings. She told him someone found the ring and other items on U.S. 41, about 2 miles from Bayshore High School, sometime 15 to 20 years earlier and brought them to Jones.

Gullett isn’t sure why Jones didn’t give him the ring right away.

“We both came to the conclusion, Ruthie and I, that he was afraid I was going to lose it again,” Gullett said.

It was an emotional moment for Gullett, who lost his longtime coach, mentor and friend.

“I just about cried when she gave it to me, because he was gone and that was the last thing I had from him,” Gullett said.

Coming from a wrestling family, Gullett began training with Jones as a fourth grader. He wasn’t a strong wrestler starting out.

“I would go to these wrestling tournaments, get beat two or three times, never win a match, and come home,” he said.

His father learned about Jones, who was then an assistant coach at Manatee High School and also trained athletes on the side, and sent his son for additional training.

“Ron was funny, because when he met you, he’d always say, ‘You’re gonna be a stud,'” according to Gullett. “'You’re gonna be a state champ,’ he’d tell you, and he made you believe it right off the bat.”

Jones had a reputation for transforming athletes, he added. “There weren’t too many kids that didn’t place in states that he coached. So, he wasn’t telling you BS.”

He operated a private training facility affectionately dubbed “The Barn” by the athletes.

“It was literally a barn that was in his mother-in-law’s back yard,” Gullett said.

These practice sessions helped him and others become elite athletes, Gullett said. “Even thinking about it today, thinking about Ron and the barn, it keeps me motivated. You don’t forget about the barn because it kind of molded ya. It’s tough. I mean some of the stuff we did, they wouldn’t do today. Coaches would probably be in jail. Ron worked us for three hours some nights.”

He added, “The barn was a barn. It wasn’t insulated. So, in the wintertime, the mat was hard as a rock. It was cold. In the summertime, it was hot as can be. No fans. … It made you tough.”

Now, in addition to the memories of his coach, he’s grateful to have the ring Jones gave him back.

“I just can’t believe it after all these years,” said Gullett. “It means the world to me. I wasn’t expecting that at all.”