The line got started back in the 1930's in Michigan and is named after a dog Ch.Ruffian who was produced by a Plymouth breeder Floyd Klump but owned by someone else whose name escapes me at the moment. The initial use of Weimaraner blood to produce one of Ch.Ruffian's parents (can't remember whether his dam Dina or his sire Deuce was supposedly 50% Weimaraner) has been rumoured since the very beginning and thus used as an explanation for the appearance of blue coats in the line, but whether that was the case or not isn't certain, since blue bull-n-terriers existed in Scotland from where they've spread into Ireland and likely managed to sneak into America with the early immigrants. Some folks refer to a non-existent "Ruffian strain of American Pit Bull Terriers" when explaining blue coats in the APBT, when the only Ruffian bloodline has always been the American Staffordshire Terrier one, with no history of any work-based selection whatsoever. These AmStaffs have always been valued for their physical beauty and size, despite the blue colour associated with the strain not being unanimously welcomed initially. The temperament that the majority of breeders of the strain aspired to achieve over the past 50 years in their dogs has been that of a non-confrontational, gentle and trainable AmStaff with no dog-aggression or hunting drives. In any case, the line has always been a strictly Show line and that direction has been maintained to this day.