Bob DalSanto '77 COM left his University of Illinois class ring on a ledge in a nurse's office in Springfield in late 1977 or early 1978.

A quarter century later, he got it back, picked up by a stranger in the lakebed of Lake Bloomington.

This is a tale of dumb luck, determination and destiny. It is a story of friendships and fellowship. It goes like this:

Bob DalSanto sports his class ring, returned to him after it disappeared some 25 years ago.

Upon his graduation in 1977, DalSanto's parents gave him two gifts: a life membership to the UI Alumni Association and a class ring inscribed with his name and the letters of his fraternity, Psi Upsilon.

The young graduate moved to Springfield to do press work for George Ryan, then minority leader in the Illinois House of Representatives. DalSanto visited the nurse's station in the state Capitol building to change a bandage on his cut hand.

"I took the ring off and put it on a ledge," recalled DalSanto. An hour later, upon realizing he wasn't wearing the ring, he returned to the station, but the graduation gift was already gone.

Flash forward more than a few years and meet 81-year-old Stanley Sisco of Hudson, retired farmer, enthusiastic euchre player and master handler of a metal detector. In the early '90s, Sisco was scanning the drought-receded lakebed of Lake Bloomington (near Bloomington). His detector clicked, and Sisco picked up DalSanto's ring — a bit muddy and a little wet beneath the stone but otherwise in amazingly good condition.

In Sisco's day, his metal detector has picked up some 300 rings, although the DalSanto ring is the only UI one that Sisco found with a name, says family friend Judy Rieke. Rieke, a neighbor and euchre partner of Sisco's, recently suggested he try to locate the owners of his many turned-up treasures.

The fellowship of the story now widens to include Dianne Gilmore Feasley '76 ACES, who lives near Hudson and whose husband is a friend of a friend of Sisco's. Feasley obliged Rieke's request to contact the UI Alumni Association to locate the "Robert J. DalSanto" inscribed on the ring.

"I thought, 'Who else would track graduates?'" said Feasley as to why she contacted the Association. Upon e-mailing the UIAA, she said, "They answered so quick, I couldn't believe it — the same afternoon."

That efficient response came from Nancy Chism, an Alumni Service Center representative who fields questions ranging from genealogy research to children inquiring about photos from their parents' college days to NBC News seeking information on former Secret Service agent and UI graduate Tim McCarthy '72 BUS. Chism, who once handled the case of a ring that turned up on a finder's toe as he kicked up some sand, reached DalSanto, who OK'd releasing contact information. Rieke then left a message on DalSanto's office voicemail.

"Five minutes later he called me back," Rieke said. "He was very excited. [The ring] was a gift from his parents, and he thought he'd never see it again. ... The ring is in incredible shape. It looks brand-new."

All parties included in the fellowship of the ring seem thrilled with the outcome, including DalSanto's wife, Deb, who asked Rieke to relay to those involved how excited her husband was to have his ring again, and DalSanto's son, Matt '03 LAS, who said, "I think the whole thing is one of the craziest happenings I have ever heard of."

"I hadn't thought of [the ring] in years and years," Bob DalSanto said. "I was excited to get it and open it, and I was very surprised at how good a condition it was in."

Now a banker and a resident of Loveland, Ohio, DalSanto is especially intrigued by the mysterious movement of the ring from Springfield to Lake Bloomington.

"If only the ring could talk," he said.