Dr. Jack Battles Cancer While Still Calling Games For ESPN Radio

Friday, May 18, 2007


If anyone has listened to an NBA game on the Radio you've more than certainly heard the voice of one of the toughest S.O.B's. in the business. Analyst Jack Ramsay calls games on ESPN Radio, and is one of the most respected men within the game of Basketball. In fact, Many of my Sunday nights were spent listening to him provide color as I drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains back to college.

Before he was an exceptional analyst, Dr. Jack was an amazing coach in the college (St. Joes) and pro ranks (Buffalo Braves, Portland Trailblazers). He was coach of the 1977 (Bill Walton led) Portland team that won the NBA Championship. He was also enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 1994, and is considered one of the best coaches of all time.

While Dr. Jack has had some amazing battles in his basketball career......they are nothing compared to what he's taking on now......

As Jack Ramsay has cared for his wife through her debilitating battle with Alzheimer's disease, cancer hopscotched through his body -- from his foot, to his calf, to his groin, to his lung, and most recently to his brain.

When he's not taking cancer treatments or visiting the facility where his wife has lived the past two months, Ramsay crisscrosses the country analyzing NBA games for ESPN Radio, swims most days in the Gulf of Mexico (he did two-thirds of a mile one morning last week) and handles his daily routine of 60 push-ups and 135 sit-ups -- the same number he did 20 years ago.
Now that's admirable. And at 82 years old he continues to keep things in perspective....
"I feel good. If I didn't have cancer, I wouldn't know there was anything wrong with me. I've had a great life, whether it lasts another month or 10 years. I've had five great kids. My wife has been a great wife and mother. I've made a life out of a game."
Ramsay continues to defy the odds though. He wasn't supposed to make it this long, and he's been dominating the Melanoma that shows up randomly throughout his body since 2004.

Dr. Jack always kept me great company on 4 hour drives, and I'll be sure to turn off the TV during the Western Conference Finals, and give him a listen. You should give it a try at least once too.

'Dr. Jack's' big battles (Miami Herald)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 4:05 PM

2 Comments:

Dr. Jack is also a noted fitness nut who ran marathons until a few years ago.

And, he is the hero of every Chicago Bulls fan because he was the one who insisted that the Trailblazers needed a center (Sam Bowie) in the 1984 draft.

God bless you, Doc!

Anonymous said...
May 18, 2007, 6:33:00 PM  

As a proud former Portlander, Jack Ramsey is, and always will be, one of us. I was six years old when Big Red and Luke took us to an NBA Championship over the Sixers, and as Jack was the mastermind behind those excellent Blazer teams of 76 and 77, we've never had it so good, before or since.

And that's fine that Bulls Fan thanks him for passing on MJ: for all the championships, MJ was still a prick who had repeatedly said he wouldn't play in Portland, and so once the coin flip for Dream was lost, we got ourselves a decent two in DreXler the next season and had a number of decent runs.

In fact, we still needed a center after Bowie snapped in two, just to play Kareem even up and get out of the West.

Jack wasn't wrong, and to hell with Michael Jordan.

Anonymous said...
May 18, 2007, 10:21:00 PM  

Post a Comment