College Friend to Return ?Final Four? Ring to Huery

A former Arkansas Razorbacks basketball star will soon receive a 15-year-old Final Four ring he sold after falling on “hard times.”

Jay Hunt of Jonesboro said he will return the championship ring he bought on eBay, the online auction site, to Ron Huery.

Hunt bought the ring for $1,500 in May 2002. Huery had received it in 1990 for playing in the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four but later sold the ring.

In 2002, Hunt told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal he would give the ring back to Huery after the former basketball star finishes his bachelor’s degree in secondary education at the University of Arkansas.

Huery, who works at a Wal-Mart store in Rogers, graduated from the UA on May 14. Hunt, who graduated from the UA in 1991, said he was friends with Huery when they attended college in Fayetteville in the early 1990s.

“It was on eBay,” Hunt said. “I knew him pretty well in college. I just didn’t want him to lose it for good.”

“You rarely, rarely find somebody who’s a good friend,” Huery said of Hunt in 2002. “When you leave college, there are a lot of fair-weather fans, but the real true Razorback fans are the ones who are loyal to you to the end.”

Huery had been working at a sawmill before he returned to the UA to finish his degree.

As of May 17, Hunt said he was still trying to reach Huery at the Wal-Mart store to figure out how to return the ring.

Hunt said the ring was posted on eBay for Huery by the president of the Arkansas Razorbacks Club in Memphis.

Hunt manufactures exercise equipment and owns Shake’s Frozen Custard franchises in Jonesboro and Jackson, Tenn. Shake’s is based in Fayetteville.