The number 92 has represented numerous. Reggie White, who played for the NFL’s Green Bay Packers from 1993-1998, Michael Strahan, who you may know from Good Morning America amongst other shows, wore the number while playing for the New York Giants. If you want or need to call Pakistan, you’d dial +92 and the number. It’s also now the number of Mr. Rip City himself.
Wait. What’s that? June 1, 1929, was the month, day, and year Portland Trail Blazers legendary announcer Bill Schonely was born. On his 92nd birthday, here is a look back at his career, how Rip City game about, and one exciting moment.
“The Schonz” started broadcasting in the Northwest at Seattle’s KOMO Radio and eventually KOMO TV, after serving in various on-air roles with a radio and TV station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Schonely would call games for the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Totems and Major League Baseball’s Seattle Pilots.
Kerry Eggers wrote in his, “Wherever you May Be…The Bill Schonley Story, Schonley almost became the radio voice for the expansion Seattle SuperSonics in 1967, and was even offered the job and accepted. However, a sponsor wanted another announcer calling the games on radio, and Schonely was pushed aside. Eggers also wrote, Schonley was approached by Blazers co-founder Harry Glickman, whom Schonely knew as a founder of the Portland Buckaroos.
“The interview only lasted a few minutes; he opened his mouth, and I knew I had the right guy,” Glickman told Eggers.”
Schonely, as we all know, came up with Rip City! But how did that come about?
The Schonz was trying to come up with a phrase that would “help my broadcast, as well as be synonymous with the team. I couldn’t figure it out,” he told me in 2019.
“Later on in 1970, the Lakers came to town, Wilt Chamberlin, Jerry West … the place (Memorial Coliseum) was packed. The Blazers were down by 25-26 points.
Suddenly, as the game went on, the scene changed, and the next basket by Portland would tie the mighty Lakers. “Jim Barnett stopped in front of me, turned and gave me a wink, spun around and took a shot for no reason, and the crowd went wild. He took the ball as it went through the hoop, and for whatever reason, I said, ‘Rip City, all right!’
“The Lakers immediately called timeout. I gave my commercial cue, I sat back in my chair, and the guys on the side of me said, ‘Rip City?’ I said ‘yeah!’ They said, ‘leave that in!'”
Other Bill Schonley sayings:
Bingo! Bango Bongo! Lickety brindle up the middle, and the all-important, YOU’VE GOT TO MAKE YOUR FREE THROWS!
And the biggest moment in Trail Blazers history, as called by him.
“The game is over! The game is over! Look at that madhouse out there. Lucas and Walton are trying to fight through the traffic to go into the locker room…the Portland Trail Blazers, at about 2 minutes and 18 seconds past the hour of 2:00, have won the World Championship. They are number 1!
Happy Birthday to the best announcer ever.