RINGS OF GLORY.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 2/9/05): Former University of Oregon football player Mike Walter played on San Francisco teams that won Super Bowls in 1985, 1989 and 1990, and Pat Johnson played on Baltimore's winning Super Bowl team in 2001. A story on Page G1 on Sunday misidentified the Super Bowl years in which the rings were won.

Diamonds are a linebacker's best friend. Even if he doesn't like wearing them.

"I used to hate wearing them, because everyone wants to shake your hand, and I came away with blisters all the time," said Mike Walter, a 1979 graduate of Sheldon High School and former University of Oregon football player who won three Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League.

Walter was talking about wearing his diamond-studded rings during speaking engagements, and how guys always think they have to give him a "death grip" when they shake his hand, to prove their manliness since, of course, they are shaking the hand of a former football star.

But Walter wouldn't trade or sell his rings for anything, as some former football players have. They mean too much, and he worked too hard for them.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, which means a group of lucky young men will not only become world champions, but will win the right to wear a gaudy and gargantuan ring that would make just about any woman shudder.

And if the New England Patriots repeat as champions by beating the Philadelphia Eagles, some of the Pats will win their third ring in four years. But that still won't give them more rings than Walter, just the same number.

Twenty-five former UO athletes have played in the Super Bowl. And 15 of them were on the winning team, giving them a ring. None, however, has more rings than Walter, who keeps his prized possessions locked away in a safety deposit box.

He won his rings in 1985, 1988 and 1989, after three of the 49ers' five Super Bowl wins. And as big and bulky and beautiful as Walter's rings are, they've been outdone by recent Super Bowl rings.

"It's almost to the point where they've gotten too gaudy," said Mel Renfro, who played for the Ducks in the early 1960s before winning two Super Bowl rings playing for the Dallas Cowboys in the '70s. "I'm not sure if I'd want to wear something like that around."

The tradition of Super Bowl rings began in 1967, when legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi gave the players on that first Super Bowl champion team simple, one-diamond rings costing less than $1,000 to celebrate Green Bay's victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Last year, Patriots owner Robert Kraft gave each of his players a ring with 104 diamonds. The rings each weighed about 3.8 ounces and cost an estimated $20,000 or more.

The NFL gives the winning team $5,000 per ring for up to 150 rings for players, coaches and staff. That's $750,000. The owner pays for any cost above that.

Jostens, a Minneapolis company that makes class rings, sports rings and other jewelry, has made Super Bowl rings for 25 of the 38 Super Bowls played, including those Packer rings from 38 years ago and the Patriots' rings last year. And if the Pats win again this year, Jostens will more than likely make them the biggest, "baddest" ring ever. At least that's been the trend over the years - outdoing the previous year's ring.

"Once the game is over, our Super Bowl starts," Jostens spokesman Rich Stoebe said. "Our job is to deliver a story. And a lot of the story culminates at the Super Bowl."

The rings are personalized and customized with the Super Bowl number and logo, the recipient's name and the number of Super Bowls the team has won, etc. Therefore, Walter's last Super Bowl ring, from 1989, has all four years - 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1989 - from the seasons in which the 49ers had won Super Bowls up until then.

Who knows what Walter's rings are worth? Teams don't usually disclose that, and they're basically worth whatever the free market says they're worth, said Fred Cuellar of Houston. Cuellar runs Diamond Cutters International, one of four companies that has made Super Bowl rings and bids for the right to make the winning team's each year.

"Credibility is why we do it," Cuellar said, pointing out that the companies are often willing to spend more making each ring than they get back because the publicity is good for the rest of their business. Diamond Cutters International also has made rings for the New York Yankees world championships in baseball and National Hockey League championship rings.

Fake Super Bowl rings "pop up all the time on eBay, Cuellar said. As do real ones.

In December, a ring that once belonged to the 49ers Lee Woodall from Super Bowl XXIX got a bid of $61,900 before its owner, a former business partner of Woodall's who got the ring in a default judgment, pulled it off the Internet site and sold it privately, according to a recent story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

It can be depressing when players decide, or are forced, to part with their Super Bowl rings, Walter said. When he was still playing, a man approached him on the field after a game in San Francisco and asked for Walter's autograph. Walter couldn't help but notice, much to his astonishment, that the man was wearing a Super Bowl XIX ring, from the 49ers victory over the Miami Dolphins in January 1985.

"Where'd you get that?" Walter asked. The man said he bought it from Blanchard Montgomery, a former UCLA player who only played one season for San Francisco. "I don't know what Blanchard had been through, or why he had to sell it, but it was sad," said Walter, who now works for an insurance company in the Portland area and lives with his family in Wilsonville.

Stories of players selling their Super Bowl rings abound. One of the better-known ones involves former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rocky Bleier, who won four Super Bowl rings in the 1970s. He had to sell all of them for $40,000 in 1996 in a bankruptcy and divorce procedure, then leased them for $1,368 a month over three years to get them back, according to a 2001 story in The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Former Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson had his Super Bowl XII ring seized to pay back taxes, and former Oakland Raiders defensive back Skip Thomas pawned his ring from Super Bowl XI trying to save his house from being sold to creditors, the story said.

Then there's the case of former Chicago Bear William "The Refrigerator" Perry. The Times story said he lost one of his Super Bowl XX rings in the late 1980s and discovered someone had made a winning bid of $27,472.72 for it on the Internet.

Funny thing is, Perry had four or five duplicates of his ring made and the buyer might have purchased one of those instead of the real thing.

Renfro, like Walter, is not parting with either of his Super Bowl rings, he said.

"They're bequeathed to my children," said the 63-year-old, who grew up in Portland and is considered one of the best defensive backs to ever play the game. "I'm just the caretaker."

Renfro played in four Super Bowls with the Cowboys and received rings for Dallas' victories in Super Bowls VI and XII. He still wears the one from that last Super Bowl.

"I retired after that one," said Renfro, who works with disadvantaged youths in Dallas, many of whom have substance abuse problems, "so that one's special to me."

Besides Renfro, other ex-Ducks who have won two Super Bowl rings are Fred Quillan, a center with those 1980s 49er teams, and Derek Loville, the running back who won one with the 49ers in 1995 and later with the Denver Broncos in 1998.

Today, former UO tight end Jeff Thomason will get a shot at earning his second Super Bowl ring.

Thomason, who won a ring playing with the Packers in 1997, retired from Philadelphia a few seasons ago and is working for a construction firm in New Jersey. But the Eagles signed Thomason for two weeks of Super Bowl duty after an injury sidelined Philadelphia's starting tight end.

Thomason, who's expected to return to his regular job after today, called himself "the luckiest man in the world."

Another former Duck and tight end, Jed Weaver, could become the 16th former Oregon player to get a ring if the Patriots repeat today. And former Willamette High School and Boise State University standout, Quintin Mikell, a member of the Eagles, could also get a ring today.

Others with UO ties who have two rings include George Seifert, an assistant coach with the Ducks more than three decades ago, who won two rings as the 49ers' head coach in 1990 and 1995; former UO defensive coordinator Charlie Waters, who won two rings playing on those Cowboys' teams with Renfro; and the late Jerry Frei, who was Oregon's head coach when Seifert was an assistant, and won two rings in 1998 and 1999 as a scout with the Denver Broncos.

In addition to Thomason, 10 other former Ducks, including Bill Musgrave and, mostly recently, Pat Johnson in 2000, have won Super Bowl rings. Another 10 played in the Super Bowl, but on the losing team, just as former UO head coach Rich Brooks missed out on a ring in 1999 as the defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons when they lost to the Broncos.

SUPER DUCKS

Twenty-five former University of Oregon athletes have played in the Super Bowl. Fifteen earned a coveted Super Bowl ring by playing for the winning team. Here they are, with Super Bowl winning appearances and the teams they played for (parentheses indicates last season played for Ducks; and Super Bowl year):

Mario Clark ('75): Super Bowl XIX, San Francisco 49ers ('85)

Russ Francis ('73): Super Bowl XIX, San Francisco 49ers ('85)

Pat Johnson ('97): Super Bowl XXXV, Baltimore Ravens ('01)

Ernest Jones ('93): Super Bowl XXXII, Denver Broncos ('98)

Derek Loville ('89): Super Bowls XXIX and XXXII, San Francisco 49ers ('95) and Denver Broncos ('98)

George Martin ('74): Super Bowl XXI, New York Giants ('87)

Bill Musgrave ('90): Super Bowl XXIX, San Francisco 49ers ('95)

Rollin Putzier ('87): Super Bowl XXIV, San Francisco 49ers ('90)

Fred Quillan ('77): Super Bowls XVI and XIX, San Francisco 49ers ('82 and '85)

Mel Renfro ('63): Super Bowls XI and XII, Dallas Cowboys ('72 and '78)

Jeff Stover ('81, track and field): Super Bowls XIX and XXIII, San Francisco 49ers ('85 and '89)

Jeff Thomason ('91): Super Bowl XXXI, Green Bay Packers ('97)

Mike Walter ('82): Super Bowls XIX, XXIII and XXIV, San Francisco 49ers ('85, '89 and '90)

Claxton Welch ('68): Super Bowl VI, Dallas Cowboys ('72)

Gary Zimmerman ('83): Super Bowl XXXII, Denver Broncos ('98)

- University of Oregon

CAPTION(S):

Intricate diamond designs shimmer on The San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl rings belonging to former Duck Mike Walter. He won his rings in 1985, 1988 and 1989, after three of the 49ers' five Super Bowl wins.Twenty-five former UO athletes have played in the Super Bowl. And 15 of them were on the winning team, giving them a ring. Last year, Patriots owner Robert Kraft made his players rings with 104 diamonds. The rings each weighed about 3.8 ounces and cost an estimated $20,000 or more.