tlongII
04-28-2014, 08:38 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2014/04/jack_ramsay_dies_at_89_trail_blazers_hall_of_fame. html
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/pgmain/img/oregonian/photo/2014/04/-77cba17330812680.jpg
Jack Ramsay, the intense Hall of Fame coach who in 1977 led the Trail Blazers to their only NBA title and later became a beloved elder statesman of basketball, died Monday after a 15-year battle with cancer. He was 89.
The ’77 Blazers used Ramsay’s fast-break offense to overcome a 2-0 deficit to beat the Philadelphia 76ers for the championship, still Oregon’s defining sports achievement. Two days later The Oregonian’s front page depicted Ramsay as he rode a convertible through thousands of delirious fans thronging downtown Portland, his arms upstretched in triumph.
“We all love Jack Ramsay, and we could never thank him enough for what he’s done,” said Bill Walton, Blazers center on the ’77 team. “He’s just such a phenomenal example of what a full life can possibly engulf.”
Ramsay finished with a .525 record over 20 years of NBA coaching (864-783). As part of the 50th anniversary of the league in 1996-97, the NBA named Ramsay one of its top 10 coaches of all time. He demanded the best from his players, and often got it.
“I just look at Jack as one of the premier coaches,” said Pat Riley, who coached the Los Angeles Lakers to four NBA titles and the Miami Heat to one. “And he could be considered the most premier coach in the NBA. It has nothing to do with how many games a coach wins or titles. He was a coach’s coach.”
A headline in the Oregon Journal on June 2, 1976, announcing his hiring as Blazers coach, read, “Ramsay: We’ll Win.” He was referring to a winning season, something the 6-year-old franchise had never had.
Ramsay pushed preparation, requiring his players to run a 7-minute mile before the season, and lived the example. A former Navy demolition diver — a precursor to the SEALs — Ramsay ran, biked long distances and swam in Oswego Lake.
As the NBA began moving to a one-on-one game defined by slashing jump shooters and slam dunks, the Blazers were cutting and passing to create the highest-percentage shots.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a team that ever scored more layups than that Blazers team,” Ramsay said in a 2007 interview. It was a compliment.
Ramsay coached games from the sideline on one knee, often in plaid or paisley flared pants and a brightly colored jacket, his thick black eyebrows hooding his hawk eyes. He would get so worked up as he directed his ball-movement offense and the zone press defense he helped popularize that Ramsay often later forgot the things he yelled in games, former Blazers trainer Ron Culp said.
“I used to live for his pregame speeches,” said Walton, the key to the ’77 team. “They were so compact, so organized, so tight, so brilliant, so analytical. And just right to the starting line. He would say, ‘OK, let’s go,' and we would just hit that door running.”
The 1977 Blazers swept the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led Los Angeles Lakers 4-0 in the Western Conference finals and faced the Julius Erving-led 76ers in the NBA Finals. The 76ers had homecourt advantage in the best-of-seven series and took a 2-0 lead in games. The Blazers fought back to return the series to Portland for Game 6, which they won 109-107.
Lionel Hollins, point guard on the ’77 team, praised Ramsay’s consistency and leadership by example.
“He got up and he worked out every morning,” Hollins said. “He ate correctly every day. There was so much discipline in his life, and you respected and admired that. He was such a good person. He genuinely liked the game of basketball. He genuinely liked the players. And all he wanted to do was win.”
Losses transformed Ramsay. His face would redden with anger, and after the Blazers lost road games he would take off on long marches through the city.
In a 2007 interview Ramsay recalled stomping through a rough part of Chicago, “hoping that somebody would accost me so that I could vent my anxieties. On one occasion, a guy did come up to me and I thought, ‘This is going to be it.’ It was winter and I had some kind of an overcoat on. My fists were ready in my pockets.
“This guy comes up and says, ‘Do you have a match?’ ” Ramsay recalled, chuckling. “I said, ‘I don’t smoke.’ ”
Often surly with the media, Ramsay showed a sense of humor with players. Dave Twardzik, a guard on the ’77 team, recalled suggesting a prank on a trip to play the Lakers.
“We come down to the locker room to catch the bus, and I see (Lakers owner) Jerry Buss is flanked by about 30 reporters, vehemently denying any shred of truth to the fact that we were trading Kareem to the Knicks,” Twardzik said. “And it was all started by Jack.”
Ramsay was the rare literary coach, giving players books such as “The Inner Game of Tennis,” and writing a regular column for The Oregonian. He played tennis with author Gay Talese in Ocean City, N.J., where Ramsay owned a vacation home, and through Talese met author David Halberstam.
Ramsay consented to let Halberstam follow the Blazers for the 1979-80 season, and the product was “The Breaks of the Game,” still regarded as one of the best sports books ever written.
Ramsay coached the Blazers for nine seasons after the championship. But with Walton lost to injury then departed to San Diego, his teams won just two playoff series. He was fired after the 1985-86 season.
After a 1½-year stint coaching the Indiana Pacers, Ramsay’s coaching career was over.
He never stopped teaching the game. Ramsay traveled as a radio and TV broadcaster for ESPN, offering advice to coaches and players and becoming known nationwide as “Dr. Jack.” The nickname referred as much for his articulation of basketball knowledge as it did the doctorate in education he earned at the University of Pennsylvania.
Former center Shaquille O’Neal developed such a respect for Ramsay that when the two were at the same game, O’Neal would ask Ramsay what new advice he had. Ramsay would impart some nugget, and O’Neal would nod silently, said Beth Faber, Ramsay’s on-site producer with ESPN.
O’Neal would use the suggested move in a game, Faber said, then “look right over at the broadcast booth as he runs by, and wink.”
Born in Philadelphia, Ramsay grew up during the Depression with his parents and three older sisters in Milford, Conn. His father, in the mortgage business, encouraged his play in baseball and basketball and took him to see amateur boxing bouts, Ramsay wrote in his 2004 book “Dr. Jack’s Leadership Lessons Learned from a Lifetime of Basketball.”
Ramsay left St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia to serve in World War II, then returned to St. Joseph’s, where he captained the basketball team his senior year and met his future wife, Jean. He became head coach of St. Joseph’s in 1955 and coached the Hawks for 11 years, during which his teams played in the postseason 10 times, including one Final Four, in 1961.
He coached the 76ers from 1968-72, and from 1972-76 coached the Buffalo team that later became the L.A. Clippers.
Ramsay moved into broadcasting, providing TV commentary for the 76ers and the Miami Heat in a smooth, deliberate tone. In 1991 Ramsay began working for ESPN and continued to provide radio analysis and contribute to the network’s print and TV platforms well into his 80s. He retired from broadcasting in May 2013 because of health issues.
In 1992, Ramsay was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“The best way I could describe him is, whether he was doing a game nationally or locally, I would tune in, both myself and staff,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Because I wanted to hear what he would say about what each team was doing. What this team was doing, what this person was doing on a pick-and-roll, what this team was doing on offense. It’s like going to class.”
During the 1999-2000 season, Ramsay’s last as a broadcaster with the Heat, he underwent radiation treatment for prostate cancer. In October 2004 he noticed spots on the sole of his foot that turned out to be melanoma. For the next several years he fought the cancer there — and in his groin, lungs, calf and brain — with a variety of treatments while continuing work and his daily workout regimen.
Ramsay had five children and 13 grandchildren. His wife, Jean, died in 2010.
For decades, Ramsay and his family met each August in Ocean City, N.J.
In 2007, Ramsay said he was at peace.
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “I’ve had a great life and am continuing to have one. So however long it lasts, I have no regrets. I’ve been very, very fortunate.”
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/pgmain/img/oregonian/photo/2014/04/-77cba17330812680.jpg
Jack Ramsay, the intense Hall of Fame coach who in 1977 led the Trail Blazers to their only NBA title and later became a beloved elder statesman of basketball, died Monday after a 15-year battle with cancer. He was 89.
The ’77 Blazers used Ramsay’s fast-break offense to overcome a 2-0 deficit to beat the Philadelphia 76ers for the championship, still Oregon’s defining sports achievement. Two days later The Oregonian’s front page depicted Ramsay as he rode a convertible through thousands of delirious fans thronging downtown Portland, his arms upstretched in triumph.
“We all love Jack Ramsay, and we could never thank him enough for what he’s done,” said Bill Walton, Blazers center on the ’77 team. “He’s just such a phenomenal example of what a full life can possibly engulf.”
Ramsay finished with a .525 record over 20 years of NBA coaching (864-783). As part of the 50th anniversary of the league in 1996-97, the NBA named Ramsay one of its top 10 coaches of all time. He demanded the best from his players, and often got it.
“I just look at Jack as one of the premier coaches,” said Pat Riley, who coached the Los Angeles Lakers to four NBA titles and the Miami Heat to one. “And he could be considered the most premier coach in the NBA. It has nothing to do with how many games a coach wins or titles. He was a coach’s coach.”
A headline in the Oregon Journal on June 2, 1976, announcing his hiring as Blazers coach, read, “Ramsay: We’ll Win.” He was referring to a winning season, something the 6-year-old franchise had never had.
Ramsay pushed preparation, requiring his players to run a 7-minute mile before the season, and lived the example. A former Navy demolition diver — a precursor to the SEALs — Ramsay ran, biked long distances and swam in Oswego Lake.
As the NBA began moving to a one-on-one game defined by slashing jump shooters and slam dunks, the Blazers were cutting and passing to create the highest-percentage shots.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a team that ever scored more layups than that Blazers team,” Ramsay said in a 2007 interview. It was a compliment.
Ramsay coached games from the sideline on one knee, often in plaid or paisley flared pants and a brightly colored jacket, his thick black eyebrows hooding his hawk eyes. He would get so worked up as he directed his ball-movement offense and the zone press defense he helped popularize that Ramsay often later forgot the things he yelled in games, former Blazers trainer Ron Culp said.
“I used to live for his pregame speeches,” said Walton, the key to the ’77 team. “They were so compact, so organized, so tight, so brilliant, so analytical. And just right to the starting line. He would say, ‘OK, let’s go,' and we would just hit that door running.”
The 1977 Blazers swept the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led Los Angeles Lakers 4-0 in the Western Conference finals and faced the Julius Erving-led 76ers in the NBA Finals. The 76ers had homecourt advantage in the best-of-seven series and took a 2-0 lead in games. The Blazers fought back to return the series to Portland for Game 6, which they won 109-107.
Lionel Hollins, point guard on the ’77 team, praised Ramsay’s consistency and leadership by example.
“He got up and he worked out every morning,” Hollins said. “He ate correctly every day. There was so much discipline in his life, and you respected and admired that. He was such a good person. He genuinely liked the game of basketball. He genuinely liked the players. And all he wanted to do was win.”
Losses transformed Ramsay. His face would redden with anger, and after the Blazers lost road games he would take off on long marches through the city.
In a 2007 interview Ramsay recalled stomping through a rough part of Chicago, “hoping that somebody would accost me so that I could vent my anxieties. On one occasion, a guy did come up to me and I thought, ‘This is going to be it.’ It was winter and I had some kind of an overcoat on. My fists were ready in my pockets.
“This guy comes up and says, ‘Do you have a match?’ ” Ramsay recalled, chuckling. “I said, ‘I don’t smoke.’ ”
Often surly with the media, Ramsay showed a sense of humor with players. Dave Twardzik, a guard on the ’77 team, recalled suggesting a prank on a trip to play the Lakers.
“We come down to the locker room to catch the bus, and I see (Lakers owner) Jerry Buss is flanked by about 30 reporters, vehemently denying any shred of truth to the fact that we were trading Kareem to the Knicks,” Twardzik said. “And it was all started by Jack.”
Ramsay was the rare literary coach, giving players books such as “The Inner Game of Tennis,” and writing a regular column for The Oregonian. He played tennis with author Gay Talese in Ocean City, N.J., where Ramsay owned a vacation home, and through Talese met author David Halberstam.
Ramsay consented to let Halberstam follow the Blazers for the 1979-80 season, and the product was “The Breaks of the Game,” still regarded as one of the best sports books ever written.
Ramsay coached the Blazers for nine seasons after the championship. But with Walton lost to injury then departed to San Diego, his teams won just two playoff series. He was fired after the 1985-86 season.
After a 1½-year stint coaching the Indiana Pacers, Ramsay’s coaching career was over.
He never stopped teaching the game. Ramsay traveled as a radio and TV broadcaster for ESPN, offering advice to coaches and players and becoming known nationwide as “Dr. Jack.” The nickname referred as much for his articulation of basketball knowledge as it did the doctorate in education he earned at the University of Pennsylvania.
Former center Shaquille O’Neal developed such a respect for Ramsay that when the two were at the same game, O’Neal would ask Ramsay what new advice he had. Ramsay would impart some nugget, and O’Neal would nod silently, said Beth Faber, Ramsay’s on-site producer with ESPN.
O’Neal would use the suggested move in a game, Faber said, then “look right over at the broadcast booth as he runs by, and wink.”
Born in Philadelphia, Ramsay grew up during the Depression with his parents and three older sisters in Milford, Conn. His father, in the mortgage business, encouraged his play in baseball and basketball and took him to see amateur boxing bouts, Ramsay wrote in his 2004 book “Dr. Jack’s Leadership Lessons Learned from a Lifetime of Basketball.”
Ramsay left St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia to serve in World War II, then returned to St. Joseph’s, where he captained the basketball team his senior year and met his future wife, Jean. He became head coach of St. Joseph’s in 1955 and coached the Hawks for 11 years, during which his teams played in the postseason 10 times, including one Final Four, in 1961.
He coached the 76ers from 1968-72, and from 1972-76 coached the Buffalo team that later became the L.A. Clippers.
Ramsay moved into broadcasting, providing TV commentary for the 76ers and the Miami Heat in a smooth, deliberate tone. In 1991 Ramsay began working for ESPN and continued to provide radio analysis and contribute to the network’s print and TV platforms well into his 80s. He retired from broadcasting in May 2013 because of health issues.
In 1992, Ramsay was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“The best way I could describe him is, whether he was doing a game nationally or locally, I would tune in, both myself and staff,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Because I wanted to hear what he would say about what each team was doing. What this team was doing, what this person was doing on a pick-and-roll, what this team was doing on offense. It’s like going to class.”
During the 1999-2000 season, Ramsay’s last as a broadcaster with the Heat, he underwent radiation treatment for prostate cancer. In October 2004 he noticed spots on the sole of his foot that turned out to be melanoma. For the next several years he fought the cancer there — and in his groin, lungs, calf and brain — with a variety of treatments while continuing work and his daily workout regimen.
Ramsay had five children and 13 grandchildren. His wife, Jean, died in 2010.
For decades, Ramsay and his family met each August in Ocean City, N.J.
In 2007, Ramsay said he was at peace.
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “I’ve had a great life and am continuing to have one. So however long it lasts, I have no regrets. I’ve been very, very fortunate.”