The Dean Of Portland Sports

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With Gus driving the bus, Hawks have moved into playoff position
With Gus driving the bus, Hawks have moved into playoff position

Saturday was anything but a red-letter day for the Winterhawks, who looked drained of energy in a 6-3 Western Hockey League loss to the Wenatchee Wild before a crowd of 6,323 at Memorial Coliseum.

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A fight to the finish, but Beavers too tough on The Bluff
A fight to the finish, but Beavers too tough on The Bluff

Michael Meek had a pretty good idea that the unblemished record his Portland Pilots were carrying wasn’t going to last through an entire season.

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There’s a Riley in the coaching box at Wazzu
There’s a Riley in the coaching box at Wazzu

When Washington State visits The Bluff Saturday for a 5 p.m. game at the University of Portland, the Cougars will be bringing along not only a 10-3 record but one of the youngest Division I head coaches in the country.

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My Favorite Blazers: Larry Steele
My Favorite Blazers: Larry Steele

Through the years, there have been a number of Blazers who have been as important for being members of the community as they were players.

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On my Heisman vote, a Dam Nation update, the Blazers’ tanking, Soto’s contract, the CFP and TrackTown USA …
On my Heisman vote, a Dam Nation update, the Blazers’ tanking, Soto’s contract, the CFP and TrackTown USA …

Some final thoughts before a little vacation around the holidays …

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Some sports books to consider for someone’s Christmas stocking …
Some sports books to consider for someone’s Christmas stocking …

(To make it easy for you to buy any of these books if you are interested, I made each image linked to buying the book right on amazon.com or bookshop.org. I do get a commission if you use the links in this post.)

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My Favorite Blazers:

World Champion Larry Steele

Former Trail Blazer and World Champion Larry Steele

(Editor’s note: My first season covering the Trail Blazers was 1989-90. Much time has passed, and many players have donned the Portland uniform since that time. We’ll run an occasional column in this space about some the players I’ve enjoyed getting to know.)

My online bookstore:

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Frosty Is No Snowman
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Frosty Is No Snowman
$30.00

Release date: 2023

By trade, William “Frosty” Comer was a hospital pharmacist and a military man. But there is much more to his story, and to his life, that is told in this book, the first-non sports book in the Kerry Eggers collection.

Comer is a family man — he and his wife of 55 years, Vicki, have two daughters and five grandchildren — and a live wire renowned for getting things done, and doing them well. He is an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, a believer and an achiever,

The Comers’ outside passion is Oregon State and, in particular, Beaver athletics. Frosty is past president of Our Beaver Nation, a fund-raising arm of OSU athletics. The Comers bleed orange and black, pure and simple.

“Frosty is No Snowman” is a motivational tale that showed an awful lot can be accomplished by determination and hard work. It’s ethos that carried both Frosty and “son” Brian Cook to unforeseen heights. Can do? Indeed.

Three Book Package: Wherever You May Be …Now, Jerome Kersey, & Civil War Rivalry
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Three Book Package: Wherever You May Be …Now, Jerome Kersey, & Civil War Rivalry
$72.00

Selection from the collective of sports books Kerry Eggers has written:

• Civil War Rivalry (2014). This is the Bible of one of the nation’s most enduring college football rivalries. Eggers interviewed more than 250 players, coaches, officials and representatives from Oregon State and Oregon. This is 527 pages of perspective you’ll get nowhere else.

• Jerome Kersey, Overcoming the Odds (2021) brings to life one of Portland’s true sports heroes. For 11 seasons, Kersey was a driving force for the Trail Blazers and for decades an important piece of the community, until his untimely death from a pulmonary embolism in 2015 at age 52.

• Wherever You May Be … Now: The Bill Schonely Story (2022) is an update from the 1998 biography of the legendary Trail Blazer broadcaster, covering the final 25 years of the life of perhaps the most popular figure in Blazer history.

WHEREVER YOU MAY BE …NOW: The Bill Schonely Story 2022 Edition
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WHEREVER YOU MAY BE …NOW: The Bill Schonely Story 2022 Edition
$25.00

This is an extension of the biography of the Hall of Fame broadcaster that was written and released in 1998. The entire manuscript from the previous book is augmented here for the first three chapters detailing Schonely’s life and career through his final 25 years. An entirely new collection of photos is included.

If you read the first book, it will bring back memories. If you didn’t, you’ll have a whole new set of stories about the original voice of the Trail Blazers, who retired in 2022 after 50 years with the NBA club.

In this book, “The Schonz” gets help telling his story from dozens of those who were close to him through the years. For the first time, get the real story behind what happened when he was removed from his role as radio play-by-play man and shuffled to a lesser role.

The first three chapters covers the “fourth quarter” of the hallowed life and career of Schonely, who died in January 2023 at the age of 93.

 

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On to our fifth year at kerryeggers.com

Message dated June 11, 2024

Hello! Thanks for visiting kerryeggers.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you! If not, insert your email in the space provided above and sign up. You will be sent every story we post on the website.

Unless many sites, we do not have a paywall, nor do I intend to. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, your subscription is covered as well as the assorted costs associated with running a website. Today, because of you, the reader, and those sponsors, we are beginning our fifth year of production. We are committed to another year of providing material from the Fourth Estate we hope you find informational and entertaining, quality and substance that you simply can’t get elsewhere.

We started the site in May 2020, shortly after I retired following 45 years in Portland newspaper sportswriting — seven at the Oregon Journal, 18 at The Oregonian, 20 at the Portland Tribune.

As of this date, we have posted 446 stories — most of them sports-related, but also Q&As with musicians such as George Thorogood, Lonnie Jordan of War, Don Felder (formerly Eagles) and Mike Reno of Loverboy.

We are getting strong response from our readers. Over the last month, we showed a 39 percent increase in page views from the previous month. For the year so far, we are at more than 81,000 page views — up 15 percent from a year ago.

Atop the home page you’ll find our archives under “Stories,” dating back to the very first story on May 3, 2020, regarding old friends Rasheed Wallace and Bonzi Wells of the Trail Blazers.

Also, under “Books” are covers of the 10 books I’ve written through the years, beginning with “Blazers Profiles,” published in 1991 after Portland’s 1990 run to the NBA Finals. Several of the books are available for purchase via the site’s “Store” tab, though we are now out of “Jail Blazers.”

If you are looking for a particular story, the “search” tab should be of help.

We welcome comments, criticisms and story suggestions. If you would like to comment publicly on a story, see the “post comment” tab at the bottom of each story. For story suggestions, send me a note via the “Contact” tab atop this page. I will respond.

I am in gratitude to our presenting sponsor, courtesy of Frosty Comer, Brian Cook and Cook Solutions Group. Also, to supporting sponsors Cutsforth’s Market in Canby, Bravuro Cellars Vineyard, Jeff Sanders Entertainment, Jim Fisher Volvo, Tim Euhus and Edward Jones, Old Spaghetti Factory, Ken Eagon, Pat Quigg and Incight and Rick Coutin. Please patronize their businesses. We couldn’t do this without them. Thank you for your support!

Kerry Eggers

The Dean of Portland Sports