Devotees see a silver-black lining.

Byline: LEWIS TAYLOR The Register-Guard

ART FERREIRA doesn't just wear Oakland Raiders colors on game day.

"I bleed silver and black," Ferreira says. "I live Raiders. There's not a day or any part of the year that I don't. I'm Raiders 366 days a year, 25 hours a day."

A plumber with a salt-and-pepper goatee, mustache and tattoos running up each biceps, Ferreira fits the part of the rabid blue-collar Raiders fan. Signed Raiders plaques cover the walls of his house like armor, he keeps a genuine $250 Raiders helmet on the mantel and he flies a Raiders flag on his house, on his bass fishing boat and on his car - a menacing black Ford F350 with the license plate OAK RDR. Also, like many other members of the so-called Raider Nation, he is confident, some might say cocky, when it comes to his team.

"You either love us or you hate us and the more you hate us the more we strut," Ferreira says.

"Talk all your trash and, good times and bad times, we're Raiders, I fly my colors year round."

Brazen Raiders fans such as Ferreira aren't uncommon, especially these days as the Raiders prepare to face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League's Super Bowl XXXVII.

But Ferreira doesn't live in the San Francisco Bay Area, he lives in Eugene, and there are dozens more like him here. This isn't the only settlement of Raiders fans outside of Oakland - the Raider Nation extends around the globe - but there are enough of them to create a small "black hole" right here in Lane County.

"I was born in Oakland, so I didn't have a choice in the matter," says Shawn Hittenberger, a real estate broker who manages the Eugene Coldwell Banker office and drives a silver and black BMW with Raiders decals.

"I get stopped all the time and honked at in town and I do the same. There's this kind of clique camaraderie, almost gang mentality, with Raider fans."

Two years ago, Hittenberger and Ferreira co-founded the Eugene-based Oakland Raiders Booster Club of Oregon. Within four games, the club quickly grew to its current size of about 100 members. According to Hittenberger, the group is now one of the largest Raiders fan groups outside of Oakland.

"We thought everybody was (Seattle) Seahawks fans but we came to find out that if they don't win, which they don't usually, they don't have a big fan base," Hittenberger says. `Somebody asked me once `Why aren't there a lot of Golden State Warriors fans up here?' I think because the town is so football crazy ... I wouldn't know if I was to get the same kind of turnout if I was to start a Portland Trail Blazers club in Eugene.'

Every Sunday, members of the Raiders club mass at The Keg on West 11th Avenue to watch games in an environment that Ferreira calls "electric." This Sunday, they plan to add extra seating and a giant screen TV in anticipation of a larger than usual crowd. "You can feel the energy," says Ferreira, who shouts a Raiders chant before every game. "Everybody is just charged up. If you could bottle that energy, you'd be pretty rich."

At the All American Sports Fan shop in the Gateway Mall, Jerry Rice and Rich Gannon Raiders jerseys were outselling Warren Sapp and Keyshawn Johnson Buccaneers jerseys 3-to-1, store manager Brandon Jacobs says. The racks were well-stocked this week with silver and black hats, shot glasses, wall clocks, even pacifiers for Raiders fans in training.

"(Raiders fans) are very loyal," Jacobs says from behind a pile of black shirts waiting to be stocked. "Win or lose, they're die-hard fans. Even in their bad years they're still in here purchasing their apparel."

Ferreira and Hittenberger also have been known to journey to the Raider Locker Room, an apparel store in the Bay Area, or to Dolly's Sportscards, a Lincoln City Raiders outfitter. For Super Bowl Sunday, Ferreira plans to dress low-key with a game day Raiders hat, while Hittenberger plans to paint his face silver and black. Both promise to tatoo themselves with the Raiders shield if their team proves triumphant.

"Raider fans tend to be almost over the top," Hittenberger says. "Every time you see a newspaper article, they always show a picture of a fan and it's not some 65-year-old lady in a sweatshirt, it's some guy with horns on his head and his whole face painted up and he's got a battle ax."

Originally from the Bay Area, both Hittenberger and Ferreira say they became Oakland fans at a young age - choosing to follow the more working-class Raiders over the "cheese and wine spritzer" team from the other side of the bay, the San Francisco 49ers. Both have supportive spouses who condone their football addictions.

"It's actually good that he goes somewhere else and watches it," says Ferreira's wife, Karen. " For a long time, I was afraid that he was going to break our TV."

Susan Ruffatto represents a different type of Oregon Raiders fan. A Eugene native, she grew up at a time when the Northwest didn't have a football team of its own. The Seahawks joined the league in 1976, but before then many Northwesterners looked south for a team to support. "My family's been Raider fans all their lives," says Ruffatto, who now lives in Pleasant Hill. "I had to pick a team when I was really young, and if you weren't a Raiders fan you were pretty much out on your hind end."

Although she insists that her brother is the real Raiders fan, Ruffatto is holding a Super Bowl party and plans to paint a giant Raiders shield on her two-car garage.

Ruffatto's brother, Tim Riggan, is a hard-core Raiders fan who once owned an El Camino stenciled with the words, "Silver and Black Attack." Riggan theorizes that the large number of local Raiders supporters had more to do with the team's tough image than with Oregon's proximity to California. "I think it's the Raider mystique, the silver and black, the bad boys," Riggan said. "Everyone wants to be a bad boy, you know."

RAIDERS GLOSSARY

Al: Longtime Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis

Raiderettes: Raiders

cheerleaders 

Chucky: Nickname for Jon Gruden, the former Raiders coach turned Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach. Gruden earned the nickname for his rubber-faced expressions, which resemble those of Chucky, the psychopathic doll from the 1988 horror flick "Child's Play." Was a term of endearment when Gruden coached the Raiders. Now a term of derision. Chucky dolls can be found hanging, in nooses in the Raiders stands.

Black Hole: What Raiders fans call their home stadium (Network Associates Coliseum). Originally referred to one group of particularly spirited fans in the south stands. Can also refer to a large gathering of Raiders fans.

Raider Nation: A collective term for all Raiders fans.

Black Sunday: What some Raiders fans are calling Super Bowl XXXVII.

Pirate Bowl: What some Raiders fans are calling the team's Super Bowl XXXVII match-up with the Buccaneers, another team with a seafaring outlaw mascot.

The Hood: The Raiders section; short for neighborhood.

Raider Haters: Those who don't have an affection for the silver and black marauders. Often fans of the Denver Broncos or the Kansas City Chiefs.

Commitment to Excellence: Al Davis term, coined in the early '70s. Has come to embody the Raiders ethos of winning at all costs.

The Dark Side: The Raiders side of the stadium. Can also mean to become a Raiders fan.

CAPTION(S):

CHRIS PIETSCH / The Register-Guard Longtime Oakland Raiders fan Tim Riggan of Springfield is excited about his team's appearance in Sunday's Super Bowl XXXVII. Associated Press Wearing devil horns is not unusual for some Oakland Raiders fans.