Fridge still gets big charge out of life

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By Craig DeVrieze | Tuesday, May 23, 2006 1:38 AM CDT | () comments

Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES Former Chicago Bear William Perry and his guide, Karie Anderson, head to the first tee at Monday’s United Way charity golf event at the Davenport Country Club.

PLEASANT VALLEY, Ill. —When William “The Refrigerator’’ Perry is decked out in a plaid baby blue shorts-and-shirt ensemble, you can rest assured that is a lot of plaid baby blue.

Notably absent from Perry’s wardrobe at Roger Craig’s 10th annual United Way Celebrity Golf Tournament on Monday at Davenport Country Club, however, was the Super Bowl ring he collected with the Chicago Bears in 1986.

“You won’t ever see it,’’ Perry   said. “I don’t wear it anymore. I leave at home.’’

In a safe, one presumes.

“It ain’t in no safe,’’ the            massive former Bears               defensive tackle declared. “It’s in the closet like everything else. Let it collect dust.’’

That is what “Fridge’’ is doing himself these days.              Collecting dust.

The 43-year-old Perry has given up his bricklaying and construction business since a recent divorce, interrupting his steady schedule of hunting and fishing only for purposes of making public appearances like Monday’s.

Perry isn’t a Hall of Famer like ’85 Bears teammates     Walter Payton, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary, or even a Hall of Fame nominee like Richard Dent and Jim Covert.

He remains every bit as              recognizable and marketable, however, because of his                 outsized image as the NFL’s first over-sized lineman.

“They said I was ahead of my time,’’ he said. “Now all the (NFL linemen) are coming out 350-plus, and they got speed, agility and everything. The guys are getting bigger and bigger.’’

They didn’t come any bigger than Perry in 1985, when Bears coach Mike Ditka plugged the 300-plus-pound rookie defensive tackle into Chicago’s goal-line offense.

He plowed though Green Bay linebacker George Cumby and into a McDonalds commercial in a famous Monday Night Football regular-season game and then became a Super Bowl trivia answer with a TD in the Bears’ 46-10 championship victory over New England 20 years ago in New Orleans.

Some folks still figure that late-game score is a touchdown that should have been notched by the late, great Payton, but Perry said he and the legendary Bears running back talked about it in ensuing years, and there were no hard feelings.

“I have said this and I will say it again,’’ Perry said on Monday. “I wasn’t a coach. I wasn’t running the team. Walter wasn’t running the team. Nobody was running the team but Coach Ditka. He called the plays.

“And give all the credit to Coach Ditka. He got the team to a Super Bowl. Walter won a Super Bowl.’’

Perry did, too. But just that one.

Davenport’s Roger Craig won three with the San Francisco 49ers during that same era. He recalls some epic battles vs. The Fridge, even one predating their clashes in the professional ranks.

“I competed against him in college when we played for a national championship my junior year,’’ said Craig, whose Nebraska Cornhuskers fell 22-15 in the 1982 Orange Bowl to a Clemson team that featured a freshman nose guard named William Perry.

“I’ll tell you what. He played against Dave Remington, and he abused him,’’ Craig recalled. “Dave was a two-time Outland Trophy winner, and Fridge just abused him.

“In the pros, he was aggressive and did the same things. He was explosive. For a guy his size, he was unbelievable.’’

Craig, who shares an agent with Perry and considers him a friend, said the former Bear was a popular attraction to his annual United Way of the Quad-Cities fundraiser this year.

“They loved him,’’ Fridge said of tournament patrons who showed up at DCC for Sunday’s pairings party and silent auction. “It was amazing. He raised a lot of money. The Fridge is still an icon. I love him.’’

Perry loves life.

He said he still fights aches and pains from his NFL career, which included eight years with the Bears, and another with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Everything hurts,’’ the big man said. “You don’t complain. You just keep going and enjoy yourself. If I had it to do all over again, I’d do it again.’’

And he sure doesn’t need a ring to remind him of where he has been and what he has done.

Neither do the fans, he said.

“I don’t think people will ever forget ‘The Refrigerator,’’’ he said. “What I did on the offense side, the defense side, they can’t ever forget. They seen it happen and they still talk about everything.’’

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com