Charbonneau resident has three Super Bowl rings
A6 March 2025 Charbonneau Villager
A Day in the Life
By TED MAST
Charbonneau resident has three Super Bowl rings
A few weeks ago the Philadelphia Eagles spoiled the Kansas City Chiefs quest for the NFL’ s first ever threepeat, back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl wins. Now many of current Chiefs players still have two Super Bowl rings, one less than CHOA resident and three-time Super Bowl champion Mike Walter. More than 123 million people in this country and another 62 million worldwide tuned in to watch the game. But only a very small handful have ever seen the game from Mike’ s perspective. When you are on the field trying to read the eyes of quarterbacks like Dan Marino or John Elway, it’ s, as they say, a whole different ball game.
Mike’ s sports career began at Sheldon High School in Eugene. He played basketball at Sheldon in his first three years of school. Senior year, he was talked into going out for the football team and followed that up as a three-year starter at the University of Oregon from 1979 to 1982 during Coach Rich Brooks’ era with the Ducks. Mike was drafted in the second round by the Dallas Cowboys during the Tom Landry reign. At Dallas he saw very limited playing time, mostly on special teams and was traded to the San Francisco 49ers after one year.
The 49ers brought him in to back up Jack“ Hacksaw” Reynolds, who was nearing retirement. One year later and Mike was in the starting lineup as inside linebacker and earned his first ring in
Mike Walter vacationing with grandkids Julane and Tatum.
Super Bowl XIX, beating the Miami Dolphins in 1984. Mike was on back-toback Super Bowl winning teams during the 1988 and 1989 seasons, beating the Cincinnati Bengals and the Denver Broncos. The Joe Montana – Jerry Rice combo provided a potent offense and, with Mike Walter leading the team in tackles for three consecutive years from 1987-1989, the Niners were tough to beat.
In Super Bowl XXIV, Mike intercepted a John Elway pass. I asked him if that play was the highlight of his career. He said“ No, the play I relive most in my mind was one that anyone watching the game would hardly take note of.” He explained that in his first year in Dallas he was involved in a drill where he had to go up against Cowboys’ star Tony Dorsett. Dorsett faked Mike as a rookie out so bad, the trainer practically had to come out and untie the knot Mike’ s legs were in. Fast forward five years and Mike is facing Dorsett again, now a Denver Bronco. He sees the play unfold and, recognizing Tony’ s move, Mike stuffs him behind the line of scrimmage for a two-yard loss. It was
an“ aha” moment.
One last thing about that Super Bowl interception of John Elway, nobody in Eugene saw it. The power happened to go out in the city during the first part of the third quarter. Mike said“ I went back to Eugene and it was like it never happened.”
Mike has been a Wilsonville resident since 1991. He has two daughters and two grandkids and has lived with longtime girlfriend Laura Chaney for 15 years. About seven years ago he was headed home after hitting a bucket of balls at the Charbonneau range and saw a for sale sign on Boones Bend and pulled in to check it out. The home was next to the community pool and he thought,“ What a great set up for the grandkids,” so he bought it.
These days Mike is an avid golfer and now a pickleball player. He is already teaching his grandson the game. I can tell you from experience, if you meet Mike on the pickleball court, try to get on his team. He is a very agile 6’ 3” and has a wingspan that makes it very hard to get a ball past him.
Communications Committee thanks Charbonneau residents
By ALICE GALLOWAY Charbonneau resident
Last month, more than 350 residents responded to three questions focused on improving Charbonneau communications. The following is a summary of what residents told us:
How effective is Charbonneau Country Club communication?
8 – not effective. 78 – somewhat effective. 178 – adequately effective. 86 – very effective.
Preferred way of getting information.
41 – The Villager 295 – Email blasts 12 – website 2 – Activity Center Reader Board
How can communications be improved?
88 – frequency 91 – level of detail 42 – more communication channels 58 – balance of text and visual Residents had a wide range of helpful ideas for improving communication, many of which will be included in the committee’ s two-year strategic plan( currently being drafted). Suggestions for improvement include:
� Sharing financial updates and budgets regularly to enhance trust and transparency.
See POLL / A8
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