COLUMBUS, Ohio – It's just another Ohio State athlete selling a ring.

This one's from a national championship 53 years ago.

If John Havlicek wore every championship ring he ever won, he wouldn't be able to function in normal everyday life. You wear nine huge title rings – eight from the NBA with the Boston Celtics, and one from Ohio State's 1960 national championship – and try to pick up a glass of lemonade.

At age 73, Havlicek is selling a portion of his collection of awards and other mementos from his Hall of Fame career. He said he's worn his rings over the years, rotating them through, having strangers on airplanes gawk and ask questions. The Ohio State ring didn't get as much use once he added to his collection as a Celtic.

Still, knowing that Ohio State hasn't won a basketball title since 1960, it's striking to see that gold ring with its red stone available. The latest bid, as of early Thursday afternoon, was for $5,317. The auction ends Friday.

The 2012 Buckeye football players just received their rings for a 12-0 season that didn't end with a title. Terrelle Pryor and other Buckeyes sold rings and other memorabilia just a few years ago that led to NCAA violations. So it's something when you realize that one of the 50 greatest basketball players of all-time is selling the ring he won for a program that has been chasing another title for more than 50 years now.

"I wore that ring for a long time and I wore the watch for a long time," Havlicek said in a recent phone interview with The Plain Dealer that was set up by the auction house to promote the sale, "and then I got championship rings with the Celtics and you can only wear one at a time. It's something that I gave my children the option of going over just about anything they wanted and they took certain things.

“And with the Ohio State memorabilia I still have fond memories of it and I know what it meant to me and I know what it meant to my teammates.

“It was the first championship team I was ever on and I think the first one is something that is very, very special. And I know the members of the team felt the same way about it that I did, that we had a great team with great chemistry. We had a lot of feeling for each other and I know to this day we all look at each other and think we had one shining moment back in 1960.”

Yet the ring is for sale. Why?

Well, Havlicek said he is so worried about something happening to some of his memorabilia that he would rather sell it now and get it into the hands of people who want it, rather than risk losing it. He cited other athletes who have lost things to floods, fires or burglaries.

Asked about how he had stored or showcased some of his things over the years, Havlicek didn't even want to talk about that for fear of tipping off anyone about the memorabilia he is keeping.

He's not alone. For instance, his Ohio State teammate Bob Knight had an auction of his memorabilia last year, after saying he talked to Havlicek about all the stuff they'd accumulated over the years.

“I figure I've had it for such a long time that I thought I'd let the fans enjoy it because I enjoyed playing for them and they rewarded me greatly with their appreciation over the years and I thought I'd give it back to them,” Havlicek said. “Only bad things can happen if you hang on to it for too long.”

So while Bill Hosket and Clark Kellogg and Dennis Hopson and Jim Jackson and Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn and Greg Oden and Evan Turner and David Lighty and Jared Sullinger haven't been able to acquire an Ohio State title ring in the years since 1960, now you can.

In fact, Sullinger, who like Havlicek went from being a Buckeye to a Celtic, should probably bid on this thing. So should Thad Matta. Or any of the Buckeyes who have a couple thousand dollars to spare from their NBA days, but don't have so many rings that they're almost out of fingers.

Frankly, the Ohio State ring seems like a bargain at the moment. Only one Celtics title ring is up for sale, from 1963, and its bid as of Thursday afternoon is seven times what has been offered for the Ohio State ring.

After all, acquiring a title ring is a special thing. Havlicek said so himself.

“It's something,” he said, “that no one can ever take way from you.”