Ever wonder about those jerseys hanging from the rafters in the Rose Garden? We're giving you an overview of all the special people who have had their jerseys retired in Portland.


Jack Ramsay
Jersey Number: 77

Fifth coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. In ten seasons at the Blazers helm, Ramsay, now a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, won 453 of 820 games, a 55.2% winning percentage, had only two losing years and made it to post season nine times.

Dr. Jack came to Portland with a reputation as a great teacher of the game who insisted on precision and fundamentals. He brought 19 years of solid coaching experience with him, Eleven of those were at his alma mater, St. Joseph’s of Philadelphia where his teams won 77 percent of their games. He then spent the next eight years in the NBA, four at Philadelphia and four with the expansion Buffalo Braves. In those eight seasons, his teams posted a combined 332-324 record and were in the playoffs six times. But Ramsay will best be remembered for his first two years in the Rose City where his coaching genius was instrumental in creating the phenomenon, Blazermania.

Under his leadership in 1976-77, a team that listed only five players from the previous season went on to shock the basketball world by bringing the City of Roses its first-ever professional sports world championship. To do so, Ramsay guided a consummate team of role players gathered around a healthy Bill Walton and an enforcer named Maurice Lucas to playoff series victories over Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and ultimately Philadelphia for the championship. The 109-107 win over the Sixers in Game 6 of the Finals in Memorial Coliseum, will forever be etched in the memories of the basketball faithful. It culminated an improbable four-game sweep of victories after the Blazers had fallen behind, 2-0, in their matchup with favored Philadelphia, led by Julius Erving. The euphoria of that championship year carried over to the next season, and Ramsay’s charges didn’t disappoint.

The basketball world pegged the young and fast-maturing Blazers as the team of destiny in the NBA. Two-thirds of the way into the season, the 1977-78 team had won 50 of 60 games and was doing it by big margins in nearly every contest. Then disaster struck. Walton was lost for the rest of the season with a broken foot and injuries to other players reduced Portland’s roster to a mere shadow of what it had been at mid-season. The Blazers didn’t make it past the playoff’s first round that year. Injuries trumped Jack Ramsay’s genius as a coach. But his successes in Portland and beyond have made him one of the most listened-to coaches ever to pace the sidelines. He finished a two-decade NBA coaching career with 864 victories, seventh highest in NBA annals, and a deserved place in the Hall of Fame. He now uses his vast knowledge of the game as a commentator on NBA on Radio broadcasts.

Number 77 is retired in Ramsay’s honor on Jan. 14, 1993, symbolically recognizing the 1977 Championship.