Rip City Project
Fansided

‘Mr. Portland’ Jake McGrady is doing it for Rip City culture, Blazers fans

By Dayton Brown

Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 9
Next
CORVALLIS, OR – The Oregon State Beavers run onto the field to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Reser Stadium. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
CORVALLIS, OR – The Oregon State Beavers run onto the field to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Reser Stadium. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /

2nd String Sports Podcast

The college intern phase of McGrady’s life put him onto his current path of passion. At KBVR, he interned for Beavers sports talk radio and television shows during his freshman year at OSU. Towards the end of his tenure, seniors were moving on, opening spots up for McGrady and other passionate sports fans.

So a new podcast was born. It was hosted by McGrady with Grant Ocampo and Geoff Lowe. All three were students at OSU and good friends. Also, they were diehard Blazers fans who could also socialize with experts in the field of Beavers sports.

It was a match made in heaven, and the guys didn’t cruise through college on the show. They went through the grind every day to produce quality content and land awesome guests.

2013: Oregon State Beavers wide receiver Brandin Cooks during the game between USC Trojans and the Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Conner/Icon SMI/Corbis via Getty Images)
2013: Oregon State Beavers wide receiver Brandin Cooks during the game between USC Trojans and the Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Conner/Icon SMI/Corbis via Getty Images) /

Not only were they able to get football player Brandin Cooks on when 2nd String Sports was a radio show, but former Blazers TV play-by-play announcer Mike Barrett was a special guest on the show as well. In fact, his interview with them was his last as a Blazers employee. Barrett is an OSU alum and was a pioneer in the radio program on campus.

After OSU

“When we graduated college, we didn’t want to just let (the show) just die. The most fun I had during college was doing TV and radio.”

Seeing as how a college radio show in Corvallis, Oregon, was extremely limiting, McGrady, Ocampo and Lowe decided to move in slightly different directions.

Since Lowe lived in Los Angeles at the time, he Skyped in to talk for each show. The podcast featured Rip City-themed episodes, with a heavy focus on Blazers basketball.

A unique aspect of the podcast is its use of Twitter to cover Blazers fans’ opinions, basketball and the show.

To this day, before every episode, McGrady and the gang tweet out on multiple accounts to gauge the audience’s opinions and statements on the hottest topics. Usually, it’s Blazers-related, but the show goes beyond Portland and into culture and the rest of the NBA.

It was also important for McGrady to get great guests on the show.

“One of my favorite moments, and really my first ‘rush’ on the show was when we interviewed Lamar Hurd,” McGrady says.

2004: Lamar Hurd, left, of the Oregon State Beavers defends against Dan Grunfeld of the Stanford Cardinal. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)
2004: Lamar Hurd, left, of the Oregon State Beavers defends against Dan Grunfeld of the Stanford Cardinal. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images) /

Hurd , the Blazers’ color analyst, is an OSU grad, too. McGrady was yet again able to network through a college connection.

At the time of the interview, Hurd was navigating a difficult transition. Many Blazers fans were unhappy that Hurd was replacing Mike Rice as TV analyst. (Kevin Calabro replaced Barrett as the play-by-play announcer at the same time.)

“(Hurd’s) the nicest guy on earth,” McGrady says. “But it didn’t matter what he said up until that point. Ever other tweet towards him was ‘We want Mike and Mike!’ But after we talked with him and released the episode, we got so much positive feedback. His passion for Rip City made a lot of fans change their outlook on Lamar.”