8B
Friday, April 28, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
By Bob Baum Associated Press sportswriter
Portland ready to play on a new trail
Trailblazers leave their "Palace" for bigger arena
PORTLAND, Ore. — The big building often is cold and the crowds there can be eerily quiet. The locker rooms are cramped and the hallway walls could use some paint.
Soon, maybe in just a few days, the Portland Trailblazers will play their last game in Memorial Coliseum.
The building once known as "The Glass Palace" has been the scene of some incredible basketball in the quarter century that it has been home to Portland's only major sports franchise.
"It's quite sentimental," the Blazers' Buck Williams said. "When you win so many games and you have so many fond memories, the place that you reflect back to is Memorial Coliseum."
The most unforgettable scene came on a sunny June afternoon in 1977, when Portland beat Philadelphia to win the NBA title. Bill Walton, who had 20 points, 23 rebounds, 7 assists and 8 blocked shots that day, riped off his No. 32 jersey and flung it into the crowd as delirious fans rushed onto the court.
"That signaled the world championship for us," said Johnny Davis, a rookie guard on that team and now a Blazers' assistant coach. "That was the crowning moment for the Blazers."
Portland voters approved a bond measure in 1954 to build the coliseum, but it took another six years to get the project finished because of battles about where it would be located. Eventually, a site on the east bank of the Willamette River was chosen.
The cost was $8 million. By contrast, the new Rose Garden arena going up next door will cost $262 million.
The crowd was 4,273 when then-Gov. Tom McCall and NAEM commissioner Walter Kennedy attended the first Blazers game in 1970.
home game has been a sellout. The 808-game streak is the longest in professional sports.
The crowd was once among the loudest in the NBA.
"It was very, very noisy, very unnerving. 'Davis remembered.'
Since April 1977, every Blazer
In recent years, though, the building became among the quietest in the league. Ticket prices soared beyond the reach of many fans. The same people showed up game after game, year after year.
The players are hoping the new, bigger arena will bring a return of Blazermania, a rabid enthusiasm that's only a dim memory in a building where the bounce of the ball and the squeak of Nikes often are the only sounds.
Next fall, the 21,700-seat Rose Garden will be the team's new home. It will be, team officials promise, the finest basketball arena anywhere.
A few hundred feet from its opulent successor, the old Glass Palace will stand as a monument to Oregon's heady journey into big-time sports.
East 23rd. Street Market Bedding Plants, Perennials,
Hanging Baskets for Mom, Herbs,
and many other items.
9am - 6pm 7 days a week
1816 E 23rd St.
(west of Vanderbilts)
843-5638
Domestic & Foreign Complete Car Care
LAWRENCE AUTOMOTIVE DIAGNOSTICS
"We stand behind our Work and WE CARE!"
842-8665
2858 Four Wheel Dr.
The Annual Chorus and Orchestra Concert War Requiem by Benjamin Britten
Combined Choirs and Kansas University Symphony Orchestra Simon Carrington and Brian Priestman, conductors with
The Lawrence Children's Choir Janeal Krehbiel, conductor
Janeal Krehbiel, conductor
soloists:
Mary Jane Kania, soprano
Ken Larmore, tenor
Andrew Stuckey, baritone
3:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 30, 1995
Lied Center
Reserved seat tickets are on sale in the KU box offices (Murphy Hall: 864-3982, Lied Center: 864-ARTS, SUA Office: 864-3777); public $6, students and senior citizens $1; both VISA and MasterCard are accepted for phone orders.
Fine Line Tattoo Inc.
•Fraternity & Sorority Letters
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•Bring your own design or choose from our extensive selection
•Reasonably priced
•Hospital sterilized
Mon-Sat 29th Mass. St
12-8pm Topeka
Tues. till 6pm 233-8288
KU ENVIRONS would like to thank everyone who made our EARTH Day Celebration On the Hill a great success!
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