For 40 years, the official Tarleton State University class ring has served as a symbol of achievement for Texans who’ve passed the 60-credit-hour milestone in their academic journey. Each spring and fall, an official ring ceremony celebrates the hard work and dedication of new ring recipients as they don their well-deserved hardware for the first time surrounded by family and friends.
This year marks the 41st year of ring ceremonies. More than 12,500 official Tarleton State rings have been minted, and as the generations of ring holders stack up, some of those treasures are being passed down to children and grandchildren.
Freshman Victoria “Tori” Lucksinger, an animal science major and soccer player from Belton, is one of those lucky recipients. Last Christmas she was given a pretty little purple box by her grandmother, Tarleton State alumna Christi Lucksinger, whom she lovingly calls “Kissy.” Inside was Christi’s class ring.
“Kissy started talking about Tarleton and the ring tradition, and then she pulls the ring out and is like, ‘Now I have a granddaughter going to Tarleton,’ and gifted the ring to me. It was very exciting,” Tori said.
Then Christi shared the interesting history of her ring: Although it bears the number 0072, it is actually the second official Tarleton State ring ever made.
The official class ring is special in many ways. Its design was conceived by a committee of alumni and students who sought to achieve a distinctive, timeless look, and it incorporates some of the campus’s beloved identifying features, such as the gates, cannon, oak trees, antique light poles and the administration building, which was new at the time of the ring’s debut and symbolized growth and progress. The top of the ring is adorned with the traditional border of the university seal encircling the Tarleton State block T.
But what really sets the official Tarleton State ring apart is that it was the first in the world to feature series numbering as part of the design. On one side of the ring, below the gates, is another block T that bears each ring’s unique number in the crossbar.
Christi was Tarleton State’s Alumni Association director in 1986 when the official class ring design was finalized and served as the liaison with Jostens as the first rings were being made.
“They wanted to give me the second ring as a way of saying thanks. Instead, I asked them to donate the first 10 rings to the Alumni Association to raise money for scholarships. They agreed to engrave 0072 — the year I graduated from Tarleton — on my ring instead of 0002. Also, they customized it with my signature engraved on the inside.”
The first ring, 0001, was auctioned off at Homecoming 1987 and donated back to the university in honor of Clyde H. Wells, longtime member of The Texas A&M System Board of Regents and former president of the Tarleton Ex-students Association in the 1950s. The second ring produced (0072) was gifted to Christi. The remaining rings numbered up to 0010 were to be auctioned off in subsequent years to fund scholarships.
“I remember when I got my ring, I just loved it,” said Christi. “And I told Ron, my husband, that one day, I wanted to give that to my first grandchild that went to Tarleton.” She wore the ring proudly for many years, until her fingers began to swell and she could no longer slide it on and off easily.
“It just slipped right on Tori’s finger when I put it on her,” Christi said. “I couldn’t believe my fingers were ever that slim!”
“Well, it fits perfectly,” Tori chimed in. “And Mom has always told me that my hands look like Kissy’s hands, so I guess it just was meant to be.”
Tori said she’s honored to have the ring and learn its connection to Tarleton State tradition. She, like countless others, frequently passes by the giant class ring statue at Rudder Way and Texan Trace (a gift to the university from the Alumni Association in 2020) but had no idea of her family connection to the official class ring.
“It’s just cool to learn more about my school, because I’d seen the ring statue and knew about the ring ceremony, but I never knew it had such a long history, and one that kind of tied to my family, too.” She still has a few semesters to go before she qualifies to wear it, but Tori said she looks forward to the day when she can, and she might eventually get her own ring to wear with it. In the meantime, Kissy’s ring will stay safely tucked away at home.
“I don’t want to lose it!” Tori said.
Tarleton State rings have been around the world, and two on display at the Alumni House have even been to space. The first ring, 0001, traveled with 1968 graduate and NASA payload specialist Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford on a nine-day trip aboard the space shuttle Columbia in June 1991. She brought the ring back to campus that fall during Homecoming and presented it along with a certificate from NASA verifying its flight on the 41st space shuttle mission.
Another ring belonging to 1970 graduate Mike Chandler flew to the International Space Station in 2018 and back home again in 2019, according to Tami Condon, Director of Alumni Engagement. Chandler served 45 years in the U.S. Air Force and was chief of NASA’s Human Space Flight Operations Branch at Johnson Space Center, and as a tribute after his death NASA offered to send two of his most prized personal items on a flight to the space station. His wife Gabriele selected his Tarleton State ring as one of the items.
Christi’s husband Ron graduated from Tarleton State in 1971. Their son Adam, Tori’s father, graduated from Tarleton State in 1997; his ring bears the number 2240. Christi couldn’t be prouder to have her granddaughter at the school where she still feels so at home. Tori agrees that having grown up with family stories and memories of the university makes it feel like a very familiar place.
“Walking around campus, my dad telling me all these stories, memories coming back to him — it really felt like a home away from home, knowing my family had been there before.”
A soccer player since age 5, Tori played for her high school team in Belton and currently plays midfield and center back for the Tarleton State women’s team. She was selected to the All-WAC Freshmen Team and was voted Newcomer of the Year by her teammates.
“I definitely was looking for a school to play soccer at, and they had a really good program for my major,” she said of her choice to attend Tarleton State. “I really love the coaches. It was just, like, everything fell into place, so it was an easy choice for me.”
Working in the family’s feed and supply business inspired her to choose pre-veterinary medicine as her animal science concentration.
“I grew up working with my dad,” explained Tori. “I’ve been around the agriculture community, and I’ve always just loved animals. In high school, I was able to do a practicum where I worked at vet clinics, so that just kind of grew my love for it.”
Each Tarleton State ring symbolizes a chapter in the university’s story, Christi said, and Tori’s chapter is still being written.
“Traditions matter most when they outlive us,” she said. “Someday, Tori will put my ring back in the box to save for her first Tarleton Texan grandchild,” she said. “After all, she will have her own uniquely numbered Tarleton State ring by then.”
“The official Tarleton State ring is more than a symbol of achievement — it’s a reflection of the journey, the memories and the people who shape us along the way,” said Condon. “Christi’s story is a reminder that those journeys don’t end — they’re a legacy to be passed on. Each ring’s unique number marks not just a moment in time, but your lifelong place in the Tarleton State family.”