And it was not that three-game stretch as a senior running back at Michigan State — rushing for 282 yards against Florida Atlantic, 201 a week later against Notre Dame and then 198 against Indiana — followed by 194 against Michigan a few weeks after that.
For her, it’s also not the fact that he stands No. 1 in MSU history when it comes to career all-purpose yards and No. 2 in rushing yardage.
Finally, it’s not even the rushing and receiving yards, the kick returns or the touchdowns he scored in three-plus years with the Tennessee Titans before a serious knee injury sidelined his NFL career in 2012.
No, when it comes to Javon Ringer, the thing that makes his mother most proud happened last weekend.
That’s when one of the greatest football players to call Dayton home walked across the commencement stage at Michigan State in a green cap and gown and — some six years after he left college for the pros — received his undergraduate degree.
“For me, as his mom, even with all the things he did in football, I’m most proud that he finished school and got his degree,” Darlene Ringer said. “Watching him walk out there and get that diploma, that truly warmed my heart.”
Just as happy was Jim Place, the former CJ coach, who now is trying to uplift the football program at Ponitz High.
Back in 2002, with Place as the coach and Ringer as the featured sophomore back, CJ won the Division II state championship.
Yet, just like Darlene, Place focuses not on the football but the inner fiber when he talks about Javon.
“The world’s greatest kid,” Place gushed “Javon is the best of the best. He’ll always work harder than anyone else. He won’t be deterred. That’s how he’s achieved greatness on and off the field.”
As for Ringer’s return to the classroom, he and his mom agreed she was the person who continually reminded him of his unfinished business.
“He liked football and he put all his eggs in that basket for a long time,” Darlene said. “But football is fleeting. Sure some guys can get high contracts and signing bonuses, but those eventually disappear.
“A college degree is something you can bank on for a lifetime. It can never be taken away from you. To me nothing is more important than an education.”
Keeping the faith
“Let me tell you two quick stories about Javon that say a lot about his makeup,” Place said by phone Friday night as he and his wife, Joanie, waited in a Chicago airport for a flight to Milwaukee to see their grandkids.
“I always blew a whistle in practice and Javon NEVER stopped until the whistle blew. So if I forgot, he’d keep running and sometimes he’d go 50, maybe 60 yards down the field.
“Well, one time I totally forgot and he went all the way down the field, jumped the fence and ran through the parking lot that went into Parkside Homes (public housing project). I had to chase after him, blowing the whistle.
“The point of the story is that this is a kid who will do anything he sets his mind to. Anything.”
The second story was about Ringer’s senior season. By the seventh game, he already had run for 1,790 yards and 21 touchdowns. Then came a season-ending injury.
“He blows his knee out and we’re all devastated,” Place said. “Dr. (Steven) Kleinhenz is examining him and he says, ‘Javon, that’s it. It’s gone!’
“Everybody was all sad. His mom was there, his dad, too. I’m there, so is Dr. Kleinhenz and some other people and Javon just looks up and says, ‘Everybody stop it!. This is God’s will for me and somehow this will result in something good in my life.’
“And sure enough, look what he went on to do at Michigan State.”
Before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that senior year at CJ, Ringer said he had set his sights on a 3000-yard season.
“I’d gone for over 2,000 yards as a sophomore (2,038) and we’d won the state title and then I got 2,000 more (actually 2,356) my junior year,” he said. “I don’t want to sound conceited — I was doing it because we had a great offensive line, a great team — but that last year I wanted to break 3,000 and go down as the best running back ever to come out of this city.”
Although Ohio State never did offer him a scholarship, Florida, USC, Tennessee and Iowa were among the passel of schools that did.
While he missed part of his sophomore season at Michigan State after injuring the MCL of his other knee, Ringer bounced back junior year and ran for 1,447 yards. He followed it up with a strong senior season and won All-Big Ten honors.
When the Titans picked him in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL draft, the 5-foot-9, 213-pound Ringer found himself at the bottom of the depth chart behind a celebrated backfield known as “Smash and Dash.”
Dash was the speedy Chris Johnson, who ran for 2,006 yards in Ringer’s rookie season and was named the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. Smash was the bruising 263-pound LenDale White.
Although he returned kicks in 2009, Ringer only rushed eight times for 48 yards. Still relegated to spot duty the next two seasons, Ringer carried the ball 110 times for 424 yards and caught 35 passes for another 231 yards.
Although it was hard adjusting to a backup role, he said Titans coach Jeff Fisher was “a great coach” and Johnson was “cool as heck.”
He called Johnson a “great” back: “Even with the success he was having, Chris never acted like he was better than anybody. He’s a great dude. Just super cool.”
Ringer figured another team would come bidding when his contract was up, but after playing two games in 2012, he suffered another serious knee injury against the Minnesota Vikings.
“I always stiff arm a defender, but this time I didn’t,” he said quietly. “I was trying to get out of bounds and I let the guy get into me too close. The way he tackled me — we went one way and my leg went the other — really tore up my (left) knee. I watched it and heard it go ‘pop!’ ”
Ringer spent 2013 rehabbing his knee and eventually got tryouts with Buffalo and the Chicago Bears.
Although he said he had “a great workout” with the Bears — “ooh, I killed it!” — nothing materialized and he returned to Dayton where he owns a home in the same neighborhood as his parents.
Last fall he finally decided to make good on the promise he had made to his mother long ago: He’d go back to college and finish the 17 credit hours he needed for his sociology degree.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be playing so I didn’t want to just sit here doing nothing,” he said. “I mean I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to go into some kind of drinking spell because he’s not playing football — I’m not going to drink myself to sleep or go crazy. But I wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to sit and mope either. I’m never going to be a guy who does nothing with his life.”
‘Man of integrity’
Ringer’s parents are ordained ministers and his dad, Bishop Dr. Eugene Ringer, has been the pastor of Faith Temple Pentecostal Church of God on Kumler Ave. for close to 50 years.
Religious himself, Ringer is a low-key, humble person who doesn’t seek the spotlight. And that’s why he acted as though it was no big deal when he graduated last Saturday.
He didn’t send out graduation announcements and didn’t bring along anyone to introduce him (as other Spartans did) at the special, post-commencement ceremony MSU had for its athletes.
“Truthfully, I wasn’t as ecstatic as everyone else was,” he said. “I wasn’t even planning on marching at graduation. I had done what I’d said I was gonna do and I just planned to go home. But everybody kept telling me you gotta do it for your parents. They’re really excited. Let them have that.”
Darlene said Javon is the only one of her husband’s nine children who has gotten a four-year college degree.
“Javon told us he was going to do it and he’s a young man of his word,” she said. “He’s a man of integrity.”
She and her husband and their daughter, Janelle, attended the ceremony, as did Janelle’s two young sons, 7-year-old Malichi and 4-year-old Joshua.
When pressed on how he’d felt sharing the moment with his family, Ringer finally admitted:
“All along I knew the value of an education, but I won’t lie to you, I never was a huge fan of school. Football came naturally to me, but school wasn’t second nature. I’m no dummy, but I really had to work at it and I got good help.
“And now that I have my degree, yeah, I do feel a sense of accomplishment. I am proud.”
As for what’s next, he’s not sure. He said he’s not ready to be finished with football.
He is dealing with some issues over his medical release by the Titans. There is some talk that teams in the Canadian Football League might be interested. And he’s also thought about coaching.
“Right now I’m just seeing what the next step in my life might be,” he said. “I’m a hard worker, I’m not a bad guy. I’ve never been in trouble and I know plenty of people. I don’t know exactly what will happen yet, but I do know this:
“I think I’d be a good catch.”
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