Tombstone boasts quite the collection of oddball sights around town. From the giant rock honoring the town’s founder to the daily reenactments of gun fights from the olden days, it can be difficult to be surprised by the surroundings of Tombstone. Enter Johnny Ringo’s Bar and The Depot Steakhouse, 60 N. 10th St., and that will change.

The restaurant and saloon might possibly have one of the most random collections of memorabilia in Arizona.

“We’ve just collected it all over the years,” said Steve Schmidt, owner of Johnny Ringo’s. “People just give you stuff.” And there’s a lot of sports-related stuff covering the walls in the bar area.

Golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Plamer signed a picture of themselves that sits behind the beer taps. Less than 10 feet away is a softball signed by the entire University of Arizona national championship team from 2001. An autographed Tom Brady football — the three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the NFL’s New England Patriots — is encased in glass behind the bar. A UCLA Troy Aikman jersey hangs near the front doors. A signed Joe DiMaggio baseball and shirt autographed by NASCAR legends Dale Earnhart Sr. and Richard Childress can also be spotted around the bar.

With such a heavy sports influence — and with flat screen, HD TVs in each corner of the bar — Johnny Ringo’s is essentially the town’s only sports bar.

“The locals get together and socialize. Without (sports bars) everyone would just sit at home, so we go to The Depot and it’s like a party,” said Glen Johnson, a 20-year resident of Tombstone and employee at the Tombstone Visitors’ Center. “They’ve always done that and had the big screen TVs and all that. During football season it is tight quarters in there, especially on Sundays.”

But to Schmidt, his place is much more than just a sports bar. Music stars Bob Dylan and Neil Young each signed pictures now mounted next to each other near the jukebox. Even with all the memorabilia from high-profile names, sticking with sports and entertainment stuff isn’t going to be interesting for everybody.

“It’s like, I’ve got a Steve Garvey bat…and basically if they’re not a Los Angeles Dodgers fan then they don’t know who he is because his time has come and gone,” Schmidt said. “Same with the Dave Stewart signed baseball. If you’re not an Oakland A’s fan you won’t know who he is.”

The oddness or rareness of an item is what intrigues Schmidt. When NBA star Shaquille O’Neal played for the Phoenix Suns, Schmidt said a friend of his wife’s — who was O’Neal’s personal chef — would try and bring a signed basketball to display in the restaurant. However, O’Neal was constantly traveling with the team and was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the summer, so Schmidt said he had his eye on something else: a shoe.

O’Neal wears a size 23 shoe — “it’s like over two feet,” Schmidt said — and that uniqueness is what he thinks people enjoy when they look at all of the memorabilia.

Lots of non-sports or entertainment related items can be found in the restaurant area as well. Lights from old trains that used to run through Tombstone dot the ceiling and precious gemstones line the mantel near the door to the kitchen. Maps, various pieces of trains and other items dating back to the Old West are all over the restaurant, including old wagon wheels built into some of the walls.

“It’s more about the uniqueness,” Schmidt said, “but it all depends on what falls in your hand.”

In his opinion, the most interesting piece of decoration in the restaurant is a bat. Not a baseball bat, an animal. That’s right, a bat is mounted in a glass case on a wall near the men’s bathroom. And for Schmidt, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“That’s just the way it came. It’s a fruit bat,” Schmidt said. “I saw it in a magazine and I thought people would like to look at something like that.”