Fuzzy Thurston’s Super Bowl II ring will be sold at auction in August as part of the government’s 28-year battle over taxes with the former Green Bay Packers lineman.
U.S. marshals seized Thurston’s ring, awarded at the end of the 1967 season, and plan to sell it to recover some of the $1.7 million the government claims Thurston owes in back taxes.
The sale comes just weeks after the Packers received Super Bowl XLV rings for their victory at the end of the 2010 season.
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court’s Western District, the government had hoped to sell more than just one of Thurston’s rings. A court order dated last week calls for the sale of rings from Super Bowl I and II, NFL championship rings from 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1965, other sports memorabilia and a gold watch.
It appears authorities have not managed to get hold of those items.
Heritage Auctions, a Texas auction house, has been appointed by the court to sell Thurston’s assets but has only one of Thurston’s Super Bowl rings along with his 1960 Packers helmet and two 1960 footballs signed by members of the Packers, including coach Vince Lombardi.
The ring will be auctioned at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill., on Aug. 4, along with a variety of unrelated sports memorabilia. Thurston’s helmet and the footballs will be offered in the Fall Heritage Sports auction that closes Nov. 11.
The Super Bowl ring is expected to fetch more than $20,000, although auction officials expect a spirited bidding that could take the final price much higher.
There have been other instances of Super Bowl I or Super Bowl II rings being sold in the past, but the Thurston ring likely will be considered one of the most popular player rings offered from either of the first two Super Bowls.
Paul Hornung’s Super Bowl I ring sold for approximately $40,000 in 2002, while former offensive lineman Steve Wright sold his Super Bowl I ring last month for $73,409.
Elijah Pitts’ Super Bowl II ring once sold for approximately $30,000, although the diamonds in that ring were replaced with faux diamonds.
A Super Bowl I ring is considered more desirable than one from Super Bowl II, although the Super Bowl II ring represents Lombardi’s final championship.
“We understand that Thurston is one of the most beloved Packers in history, and rightfully so, but we’re confident his fans will understand that Heritage is simply the auction house chosen by the courts,” said Chris Ivy, the director of sports auctions for Heritage Auctions. “We hope to reach out to fans who might wish to purchase the material to return it to Thurston, but obviously we had nothing to do with its forfeiture.”
Thurston, 77, played for the Packers from 1959 to 1967.
His tax battles stem from his post-Packers days, when he and business partners opened a chain of restaurants under the Left Guard name, after the position Thurston played for the Packers. In the mid-1970s, the chain had restaurants in Green Bay and several other cities in Wisconsin as well as one in Miami, Fla., all of which were sold or closed by the early 1980s.
According to the complaint filed in 1983, Thurston and his partners withheld federal income taxes from their employees’ salaries but then failed to turn some of that money over to the Internal Revenue Service. The problem occurred between 1978 and 1980 at the chain’s Janesville restaurant, the complaint said.
The money is referred to as trust fund taxes because employers hold their employees’ money in trust until it is turned over as a federal tax deposit. The employee can be held liable for money not turned over, and, in Thurston’s case, the employee sued him and his three partners in federal court.
Thurston’s three partners paid off judgments against them, but Thurston remained embroiled in a battle over whether his part of the judgment also was satisfied. The court ruled in 1984 that it was not and ordered Thurston to pay $190,806.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin renewed the judgment against Thurston on April 28, 2004, and placed a lien on a condominium that Thurston owned in Naples, Fla.
The case remains unresolved. With interest, Thurston’s debt stands at a little more than $1.7 million, according to court documents.
Calls to Thurston’s Waupaca home weren’t answered Wednesday or Thursday. Green Bay lawyer Owen Monfils, who represented Thurston through some of his tax battles, said he was certain Thurston didn’t owe “nearly as much as the government claims.”
A lawyer who Monfils said represented Thurston in more recent years didn’t return calls Thursday from the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Prosecutors conducted depositions of Thurston’s family members and business associates to try to learn his assets. The depositions revealed Thurston’s personal property included the championship rings, court documents say.
Thurston’s home in Waupaca County has a value of $623,900 but is in his wife’s name, according to the Waupaca County land listings office.
Fuzzy’s Shenanigan’s, a tavern that Thurston owned for about 15 years, first in Allouez and later on Green Bay's west side, was in Thurston’s son’s name until being sold about a year ago, according to the Green Bay city clerk’s office.
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