Former football player reunited with championship rings years later

By Ariel Mallory

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — A heartwarming story, a former Blount football player was reunited with his high school championship rings.

Higel Harris says he lost the two rings years ago after they slipped off his fingers during a Mardi Gras parade.

Well, last week a unique discovery led to a touching reunion.

It was an emotional moment for both men, as Harris didn’t think he’d ever see his rings again.

“It was like I won them again. It was like I won them again and he was presenting them to me to wear them,” Harris said.

Six years ago Harris says he was riding on a Mardi Gras float in downtown Mobile when two of his Blount championship rings went missing.

“After I got home, after the parades and stuff, I started looking everywhere and could never find them and I just had never found them,” Harris explained. “For me the hard work that I put in for them, they meant a lot to me.”

Harris says he got the rings when Blount won two state championships in 1990 and again in 1992.

He says he was devastated losing something so sentimental.

But last week Harris got an interesting message from a stranger saying they found something he might want.

“I was feeling in my pockets like did I lose my wallet? So I’m like I haven’t lost anything so I’m like why would they be calling me?” he said.

Come to find out it was Jamie Malone calling to tell Harris he found his rings in the exact same spot six years later.

“I was sitting at home and decided I wanted to do a little metal detecting and so I got a signal on the ground and bent down, dug it up, and there was one ring,” Malone said. “And dug a little deeper and there was a second ring.”

After seeing the engraving on the ring Malone was determined to return it to the owner.

He says within minutes he was able to track down Harris online to meet up and return the rings.

The two men who met as strangers say they’re now lifelong friends.

“This like my new best friend right here,” Harris exclaimed. “I could never tell him thank you enough and he’ll always have a part of me and a part of my heart.”

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