Jerry Attaway, his conditioning coach at USC and (teammate) Ronnie Lott had convinced Bill Walsh to select him in the draft.

Riki Ellison played in the same defensive backfield alongside Ronnie Lott for 12 seasons at USC, 49ers and Raiders.

[4] He was drafted alongside a pair of future Pro Bowlers, running back Roger Craig and centre/guard Jesse Sapolu.

Shortly thereafter, Ellison's parents divorced and he relocated with his mother to Los Angeles, where she remarried Dennis Gray and moved to Beaver Creek Ranch, Rimrock, Arizona.

His grandfather Edward Ellison played on the 1911 NZ Maori team and was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1938 for his work as a Doctor in the Pacific.

Rhett Ellison was the Captain of the USC football team and was drafted into the NFL playing for 8 years as a tight end for the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants.

Ellison and 49ers teammates Lott, Joe Montana, and Dwight Clark were backup singers with Huey Lewis and the News on their 1980s singles "Hip to be Square" and "I Know What I Like".