Surprisingly, Tiffany’s a hardware store

Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 | 10:24 a.m.

The Tiffany Co. has been known for more than 100 years as a place where a person can buy the finest jewelry and silver goods.

For the next three weeks Tiffany's at the Bellagio will display a line of its exclusive merchandise that can't be bought -- it has to be won.

A traveling exhibition of Tiffany awards, just in from the International Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, is being admired by the public, whose attention is drawn to the display windows of the shop.

The Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy and the National Basketball Association Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy are among the gold and silver symbols of athletic superiority that will be at he local store through Nov. 26, when the exhibit will return to storage in New Jersey and await next year's tour.

"The exhibition has been extremely successful," Suzy Nagle, director of the store, said. "People are awestruck. No one makes trophies like these.

"Tiffany has master engravers with 35 to 40 years of experience. They're dedicated to the highest quality of craftsmanship to pay tribute to the athletes' skill."

The "Tiffany Sports Trophies: Celebrations of Victory" traveling exhibition is as close as most people will get to see a Super Bowl ring or the Presidents' Trophy for the National Hockey League or 17 other custom-made trophies.

Among other items in the exhibit are Washington Redskins' quarterback Mark Rypien's 1991 Super Bowl ring (size 13), Cito Gaston's World Series rings (he was manager of the Toronto Blue Jays when they won back-to-back championships in 1992-93) and a gold medal from the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Yachting was a major sport in America in the late 1880s and early 1990s, and Tiffany created trophies for many of the contests -- among them the legendary Goelet Cup. The trophies were commissioned by Ogden Goelet, a prominent member of the New York Yacht Club, which is home to 21 of the Tiffany trophies.

A Goelet Cup and the ornate Viking Rowing Trophy, which was created in 1870, are also on display.

People attracted to Tiffany for its jewelry might be surprised to know that since its founding in 1831, the icon of class and taste has become one of the premier creators of championship trophies.

Tiffany's race for trophy superiority began in 1860, with the Woodlawn Vase. The award was commissioned for a racing association in Louisville, Ky. Later the trophy was presented to the Maryland Jockey Club to be awarded to the winner of the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in the Triple Crown and today the oldest continuously contested trophy in the United States.

In 1897 Tiffany was commissioned to design the Belmont Memorial Challenge Cup for the Belmont Stakes, the oldest of the Triple Crown races. The founding sires of the thoroughbred horse in America are portrayed on the base of the bowl.

Tiffany created the first world championship baseball trophy in 1888. The Hall Championship Cup depicts the five people necessary to play a game: umpire, catcher, pitcher, batter and outfielder.

Tiffany also designed the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award for Major League baseball, which is awarded at the discretion of the commissioner of baseball. Three athletes received the award in the 1998 season: Mark McGwire, for breaking the single-season home run record with 70 home runs; Sammy Sosa, for scoring 66 home runs in the home run race; and Cal Ripken, for breaking Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive games played.

In 1904 Tiffany produced the Vanderbilt Cup, named for William K. Vanderbilt, who organized a 284-mile auto race on Long Island to stimulate interest in American-made cars. The trophy depicts Vanderbilt in his 90-horsepower Mercedes, and was re-created in 1996 for the inaugural U.S. 500 auto race.

In 1959 the National Football Foundation commissioned Tiffany to create the MacArthur Bowl, honoring General Douglas MacArthur. The trophy is given to the year's best college football team, which is selected by a poll conducted by the Foundation.

For professional football, Tiffany has produced all of the Super Bowl trophies since the the first in 1967. In 1970 the award was named the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy, in honor of the late Green Bay Packers coach who led the Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls. The trophy features a regulation-size football in kicking position.

Tiffany Vice President Oscar Riedener sketched the original outline for the trophy during a meeting with the late Pete Rozelle, then commissioner of the National Football League. Tiffany also created the Pete Rozelle Trophy for the outstanding Super Bowl Player, which is among the display items.

In 1978 Tiffany created the National Basketball Association Championship Trophy, re-named in 1984 for Larry O'Brien, the former NBA Commissioner. In 1997 Tiffany designed the Women's National Basketball Association Championship Trophy, which features a seven-inch basketball supported by three columns set in a curved triangular base.

Since 1984 it has made the Samuel Rudin Trophy for the male and female winners of the New York Marathon.

Tiffany creates the United States Open Tennis Championship Trophy and the trophy for the GTE Byron Nelson Classic, one of golf's prestigious competitions. Also, the Alan I. Rothenberg Championship Trophy awarded to the Major League Soccer Cup champion, and the Citizen Cup, awarded to the winner of the Defenders Series leading to the America's Cup race, and the crystal and sterling silver Breeders Crown for harness racing.

At least one person has a Tiffany trophy who didn't win it -- in 1996 a display model of a National Basketball Association championship trophy was stolen. The $9,000 trophy was taken en route to a Chicago jewelry store, where it was going to be exhibited.

While Tiffany's is famed for the perfection of its workmanship, it flunked at least one spelling test.

In May 1996 the Sporting News presented Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers with its NFL Player of the Year award -- a Tiffany trophy.

Favre's name was spelled "Farve," which is the way it is pronounced, but not the way it is spelled.

The mistake was corrected but the quarterback is still waiting for a chance to win another Tiffany trophy.