The bling is back
FSU recovers stolen championship football trophies
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A pair of $30,000 national football championship trophies stolen last year from a locked case at Florida State University were recovered Wednesday, university officials said Wednesday.
A 25-year-old self-described boat captain from Fort Walton Beach, John Piowaty, was being held at the Leon County Jail on burglary and grand theft charges, university spokeswoman Browning Brooks said.
One of the trophies was recovered in Fort Walton Beach in the western Florida Panhandle, about 150 miles west of Tallahassee and the second was recovered in the capital city.
A second suspect, who is from Tallahassee, surrendered the second trophy Wednesday evening and will turn himself in Thursday, Brooks said.
Neither were students or employees at the university, she said.
The Waterford Crystal trophies, awarded at the time by Sears in recognition of the 1993 and 1999 national championships based on the final coaches poll, were removed from a locked wooden-and-glass case outside coach Bobby Bowden's office on June 23, 2004 during renovation work in the area.
"I always felt like we would (see them back) because what are you going to do with them?" coach Bobby Bowden said Wednesday night.
There were no surveillance cameras in that area and the trophies were not insured.
Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said security has since been beefed up significantly.
"I thought it was just a matter of time," Wetherell said. "You can't have something like that and somebody's not going to say something to somebody."
Assistant Florida State police chief Tom Longo and Wetherell said a $2,500 reward for information leading to recovery of the crystal trophies could be paid.
University's boosters purchased replica trophies that Wetherell insisted Wednesday looked the same to him as the originals.
Wetherell praised the police work and noted the cooperation the school received from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, adding he'd "like to have a third one too."
The Seminoles failed in their bid for a third national title in their 2001 Orange Bowl where they were defeated by Oklahoma.
The 1993 team led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Charlie Ward finished 12-1, beating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl on a last minute field goal by Scott Bentley. The 1999 team went 12-0 behind the school's second Heisman winner, quarterback Chris Weinke, defeating Virginia Tech and star quarterback Michael Vick in the Sugar Bowl.
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