My favorite Blazers

Buck Williams

(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.)

The husky voice carried across the phone lines from Albania, north of Greece off the Adriatic Sea, where Buck Williams and his wife were visiting their son Malek, who is married to an Albanian woman.

Latest material:

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Sports books to consider to help you get through winter …
Sports books to consider to help you get through winter …

(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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Finally, Minott is making beautiful music on the hardcourt
Finally, Minott is making beautiful music on the hardcourt

For his first four years of college basketball, Tre-Vaughn Minott mostly warmed the bench.

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Beaver pitching: Velo, veterans and va va voom
Beaver pitching: Velo, veterans and va va voom

(Second of two parts)

The favorite pitcher of my youth, Warren Spahn, had a simple theme about his craft.

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It’s 1, 2, 3, 4, time to open the door for Beaver baseball in ’25
It’s 1, 2, 3, 4, time to open the door for Beaver baseball in ’25

(First of two parts) 

Joey Wong was a three-year starting infielder at Oregon State who spent 11 years in the minor leagues, rising as high as the Triple-A level.

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Even Cinderella can’t top Caleb Crooks’ story
Even Cinderella can’t top Caleb Crooks’ story

It sounds like the plot for a made-for-TV movie, but it is not.

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Minor has been a major addition for Beavers
Minor has been a major addition for Beavers

CORVALLIS — Coach Wayne Tinkle regards point guard Damarco Minor as a godsend.

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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.

Jail Blazers
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Jail Blazers
$25.00

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Portland Trail Blazers were one of the winningest teams in the NBA. For nearly a decade, they won 60 percent of their regular-season games, made the playoffs every year and reached the Western Conference finals twice. But what was just as newsworthy as their on-court accomplishments was their behavior on and off the court.

Portland general manager Bob Whitsitt — who said he had “never studied chemistry in college” — built those Blazers in a similar fashion to a fantasy-league team. The players had plenty of talent, but their issues ended up being their undoing — hence the “Jail Blazers” sobriquet. Many pundits consider it the darkest period in franchise history.

The comportment of players such as Isaiah “J.R.” Rider, Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells and Ruben Patterson put a stain on the franchise that took years to erase. The author, who covered the team during this controversial period, shares the stories told by players, coaches, front-office employees and others around the team during those years when headlines resulted from behavioral mishaps as much as on-court success.

In 2018, noted author Jeff Pearlman called Jail Blazers “the year’s best sports book. …. Christ, it’s good.” Buy your own copy — autographed by the author if you like — right here.

Jerome Kersey Overcoming The Odds
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Jerome Kersey Overcoming The Odds
$25.00

Softcover

Release date: 2021

As Cinderella stories go, Jerome Kersey’s is at the top of the list.

A native of rural Clarksville, Va., Kersey was an unknown from Longwood College in Farmville, Va., when he was drafted in the second round by the Trail Blazers. He made the team as a rookie in 1984-85 and began a 17-year NBA career that included 11 seasons with Portland. He was a starter and key cog on a Portland team that reached the NBA Finals in both 1990 and ’92 and won a championship ring with the San Antonio Spurs in ’99.

Portland coach Jack Ramsay liked Kersey’s potential but suggested to him that he play professionally in Europe to gain some seasoning before he’d be ready for the NBA. Kersey ignored the advice, made the Trail Blazers’ squad as a rookie and began a 17-year NBA career that included 11 seasons with the Blazers. He was a starter and key cog on a Portland team that reached the NBA Finals in both 1990 and ’92 and won a championship ring with the San Antonio Spurs in ’99.

Kersey’s story is one of perseverance and also of making a deep commitment to community and civic contributions. After his retirement as a player, he served many years as an ambassador to the Blazers and was working as director of alumni relations when he suffered a fatal pulmonary thromboembolism in 2015. He was 52.

 

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We are on to a fourth year at kerryeggers.com

Message dated July 18, 2023

Time marches on. So does kerryeggers.com.

Because of you, the reader, and our sponsors, we are committed to another year of providing material from the Fourth Estate we hope you find informational and entertaining.

My website supervisor and I started this project during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, when nothing much was going on in terms of live sporting events and Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance” was about all we had for new sports-related programming. Thankfully, the world of sports has returned to normal since them.

We have covered a lot of ground over time. As of July 18, 2023, we have posted 348 stories — 347 of them on sports subjects, and one on rocker George Thorogood (with hopefully more to come).

I have written about the Trail Blazers, and Beavers, and Ducks, and Winterhawks, and Pilots basketball, and an instructive full game day look inside the George Fox football program.

I have profiled dozens of major sports names, among them Rick and David Adelman, Ernie and Jordan Kent, Larry and Herb Brown, Ad and Adley Rutschman. Former Blazers such as Buck Williams, Chris Dudley, Dave Twardzik and Darnell Valentine. Ex-Beaver baseball players (and major leaguers) Darwin Barney, Drew Rasmussen, Steven Kwan and Matt Boyd. Former Beaver women’s athletes such as Mikayla Pivec, Talia von Oelhoffen, Grace Featherstonhaugh and Jade Carey. Former Duck athletes such as Mac Wilkins, Jeff Sanders, Peter Jacobsen and Mike Walter.

I have written in memoriam about Dick Fosbury, Bill Schonely, Steve Brandon, Bob Fronk, Cliff Robinson, Harry Glickman and sports historian Bob Gill. I have twice written about the complexities of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), covered the complicated Linfield basketball coaching situation and talked with Blazer president/business operations about the future of Moda Center. I’ve covered NCAA Regional basketball, the Prefontaine Classic and the MLB All-Star Game in Seattle, the latter with Adley Rutschman providing the important local angle.

In recent months there was David Adelman’s NBA championship, Rick Adelman’s Chuck Daly Award, Neil Everett’s ESPN retirement, the Blazers’ drafting of Scoot Henderson, Travis Bazzana’s remarkable baseball season, Randy Brack’s “Field of Dreams” at North Marion High and the motivational talks delivered at a fraternity house in Corvallis, 50 years apart, by John Wooden and Pat Casey.

For two years, thanks to Sammie’s Pub and Lotto franchise in Salem, we have coordinated a “Pros vs. Joes” bracket challenge, allowing readers the chance to pick games and win prizes in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

In June, we began a drive to attract more subscribers to our website. We welcome those of you who are new to the site. Each month, a lucky new subscriber will win a free prize donated by one of our sponsors. If you are not a subscriber, please place your email address in the space on this page and you will become one. It is free, and you will get each of our posts via email.

As always, we welcome comments, criticisms and story suggestions. For the latter, send me a note via the “contact” tab atop this page. I will respond.

I am in gratitude to another year from our presenting sponsor, courtesy of Frosty Comer, Brian Cook and Cook Solutions Group. Also, to supporting sponsors Cutsforth’s Market in Canby, Claudia’s Sports Pub and Grill, Sports Management Worldwide, attorney-at-law Javier Spyker, Bravuro Cellars Vineyard, Jeff Sanders Entertainment, Jim Fisher Volvo, Old Spaghetti Factory, Essay Cure and, our newest addition, Huber’s Restaurant. We couldn’t do this without you.

Thank you for your support.

Kerry Eggers

The Dean of Portland Sports