92-Year-Old Reunited With Lost Letterman Jacket From College

WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Social media wasn't around when Mal Osborn earned his letterman jacket at the University of Maine about 70 years ago. But it went a long way in helping the former collegiate track star find the cherished item after it was lost earlier this fall.

Osborn, a 92-year-old Winston-Salem man who still works as a tax attorney, had worn the wool letter "M" University of Maine jacket often in the decades since starring as a runner at the school from 1949 to 1952, according to a report from the Bangor Daily News.

He misplaced the item that marks his track accomplishments in October, and told the newspaper he thought he would never see it again.

“It was a part of me because I’ve had it so long,” he said.

But in came Beverly Amick, his daughter, who took to Facebook with a photo of her dad wearing the jacket and noted it had been lost somewhere near his North Carolina home.

Less than 24 hours later, it turned up.

It turns out a woman hung on to it after finding it under a pile of leaves in her front yard on Nov. 1, according to the newspaper. She happened to be friends with someone who is an acquaintance of Osborn, and the jacket would soon be back with the man who earned it.

Amick told the Daily News she thinks her dad put the jacket on top of his car before driving off to a restaurant and it had fallen into someone's yard.

Osborn is overjoyed to have it back.

“I’m awful glad I got it,” he told the Daily News. “I hope you give credit to all the kind people, especially my daughter, who set this whole thing in motion. I know there’s good people in the world, but this made me more aware of it.”

Read more via the Bangor Daily News