Learning The Ropes, By Harry Glickman

The following article by Harry Glickman, founder of the Portland Trail Blazers who passed away June 10 at the age of 96, ran in the "Reflections" section of the January 1995 edition of Rip City Magazine

The first regular season Blazers game was played here in Portland against the Cleveland Cavaliers, another expansion team. The exact attendance was 4,273 -- a very disappointing crowd. We certainly expected to draw more than that number of people to the first game of a major-league team.

You are always a little edgy on the day of a game, and that day perhaps a little more so. I didn’t have any special good luck charms with me-- although over the years I’ve acquired a lot of them and discarded…