Earrings Tie Program Together Through the Decades
Thomas has the honor of wearing them this season
Mike Brohard
The story of origin has been lost through the decades. Even those who were part of the tradition are a bit foggy on where it all began. Even the woman who tried to piece it all together.
Back in 2009, Cathy Lujan started to compile a list of senior mothers who had been gifted a set of gold Rams earrings, presented at the end of one season by one mother to the next. Back then she was curious.
Where did they come from? Who wore them before her? So she started asking questions and dated them back to at least the 2006-07 season when Jeni Winegarner wore them when her daughter, Brette, was a senior.
Lujan, who had two daughters swim for the Rams – Annsley from 2006-09, and Arianne from 2010-13 – wore them Annsley’s final season. She would pass them on to Linda Muniz the next season.
She remembers starting the project, but not the rabbit hole it took her down.
“I have no idea. I just kind of forgot about all that stuff,” she said with a laugh. “It’s been awhile. I do remember they were kind of a big deal. Do they still have them?”
The answer, nearly 20 years later, is yes. They still exist, which is amazing to Cathy and even Janet Molzahn, who had them in 2020-11. They are somewhat surprised through the years one of them wasn’t lost or even broken.
They are presented every year to the next mom chosen. The earrings are gold ram heads, and Cathy remembers they were a bit heavy and feared they would stretch out her ears. They come in a gold box adorned with a brown ribbon, tucked inside a gold-mesh bag Molzahn bought to carry them around. See, the earrings are pierced. Her ears were not, so she just kept them with her in her bag at every meet. She remembers passing them to Jane Fuller, who also didn’t have pierced ears.
“I basically tucked them in my purse, and I brought them to every meet,” Molzahn said. “For luck. I’m a very superstitious person.”
What Cathy and Molzahn do recall is having to make a big decision about who to give them to next, a process which Sandra Thomas is already fretting over a bit. The thing about the earrings is they live a rather obscure existence until they are passed down.
They are always there but not always worn. And if worn, can be covered by a longer hair style. Cathy thinks she wore them every meet but can’t really remember.
“Just tell them I did,” she joked.
That’s one problem solved for Thomas, whose daughter, Tess Whineray, is heading into her senior year. She wondered if they were just for big meets, but now she has the go ahead to have them on when the 2026-27 begins this weekend at EPIC as Colorado State hosts the Front Range Invitational.
She’s especially honored to do so now that she knows more about the back story.
“The first I knew about them was that Delaney Engel's mom, Jody, came up and said, ‘I've got something special for you.’ And she gave me this beautiful bag with a box in it and a list of names,” Thomas said. “She said, ‘my duty is to find another mom to wear these earrings this year, and I've decided it should be you,’ So I was so chuffed. I was really, really pleased and honored.
“She gave them to me, and I think it was the last day of conference. That was great. So I brought them home, and I've been looking after them ever since. Then at the end of conference this year, I'll have to hand them on to somebody.”
To all, it speaks of the community which has roots not just in the program, but the culture of the sport itself.
Mothers and fathers alike spent their days not just taking children back and forth to practice and surrendering weekends standing behind the blocks timing. Or sitting at a table on the side and running the timing system. They probably took a turn as the clerk of course, giving out ribbons and medals to race winners.
If not those tasks, then certainly they were talked into becoming referees or running a hospitality room at a meet. Those things all disappeared in college, so the bond just moved to the stands.
It's a women's swim and dive team and recognizing the moms and the connection between the moms and the daughters. I really like that.Sandra Thomas
It was there they would gather, the parents of upperclassmen welcoming in the new wave of parents. They sat together, struck up conversations and built friendships, just like their swimmers were doing on deck.
“I think it's impressive. I think it just shows to the connection that not only the girls on a swim team have, but the parents really do rally together. It was a close group,” said Emily Molzahn, who swam for the Rams from 2008-11. “I have to say my four years, I think my parents maybe missed one meet. I was unique. I was an out-of-town swimmer; a lot of people were in state, at least my four years.”
When Emily committed to Colorado State from Illinois, her parents purchased her a personalized license plate: Swim CSU. When she moved to Colorado, she was stunned it was still available in state.
She still has it to this day, now working in the design and merchandising college at Colorado State as the interior architecture and design intern coordinator.
She is still a Ram through and through. What touches her is how the parents of her era have stayed connected, just the way she has with her teammates.
It took no time at all for Thomas to understand the gift was more than just a pair of earrings to display a bit of team pride. Living in in another hemisphere and not being at every meet, that made the gesture carry more meaning.
“Look, I really – because we're from New Zealand and we don't have college swimming here -- I'm just really … It just means so much to know that we're part of this tradition that has gone on for so long and that Tess has been welcomed into it and that we as a family have been welcomed into it and can make a contribution,” Thomas said. “Just be part of the Ram family. Yeah, it just really warmed my heart because we're not on the ground, but we're 100% behind the team. It's really, really special.
“I actually thought it was a beautiful – like the whole symbolism of it with the Rams. It's a women's swim and dive team and recognizing the moms and the connection between the moms and the daughters. I really like that. I loved the opportunity to be part of that, and also because I know a couple of generations of those moms, I know how much they have supported their daughters through it and I know Jody is a really special person. So I felt they were big shoes to fill.”
The list is what intrigues most moms when they receive the earrings. It carries them back in time to people they have never met but can relate to in an instant. The swimmers come to know about the earrings if their mom, or a friend’s mom, are presented them.
Karen Roh, a volunteer assistant coach knows about them, because she was a swimmer and her mother, Nadia, wore them in 2017-18.
Jeni is the first name on the list dating to 2006-07. It was Becky Sheppard who handed them to Nadia. Laura Rowley wore them in 2019-20. Teresa Mundy had them in 2022-23.
They might not know each other personally, but they feel like they could. That they would be friends, linked by shared experiences.
The earrings have created a select group of people who will always be connected to each other. Each one of them has settled into the bleachers at Moby Pool to watch a meet, cheered for a victory in a race, a best time or at least one which offers promise.
When it was their time, they put together goody bags for the girls on the team for conference and bought matching shirts so the Rams could easily find them in the stands at conference.
Thomas is honored this is her time. She will humbly add her name to the list, and she will carefully and with a feeling of a bestowed honor choose the name which will follow hers.
When Thomas looks at the earrings, she sees more than jewelry. They are a lineage. They are multiple stories tied into one, even if those tales happened so long ago the particulars are lost.
Go to the top of the list, to Jeni. She has a vague memory of the earrings, but she hold no recollection of why her name tops the list or that she gave them to anybody else. Or wearing them.
Nobody can recall the person who walked into a store, saw them and had the notion this could turn into something special. But they are real, and Thomas has them. And to her, only one tale really matters.
“I just looked at that list, and I thought actually these are really impressive women who have supported their daughters and supported the team in a wonderful way,” she said. “I just really admire that, and I think when we're talking about women's sport, it's really important to recognize the work that goes in behind the scenes to make a great athlete. I felt really proud to be associated with those women who have done that for their daughters.”
It is a tradition. One where the beginning of the story may be lost, but one where chapters are still to be written.
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