The memorable face that belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Oregon Sports, Harry Glickman (May 13, 1924 – June 10, 2020) stands alone for his work in founding, developing and then maintaining the state’s most successful events and teams, including the Portland Trail Blazers. He is regarded as “The Father of Pro Sports in Oregon.”
Born in Portland, Glickman played basketball at Lincoln High School and, upon graduation in 1941, attended the University of Oregon, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. At Oregon, he served as director of the university’s athletic news bureau and wrote for the school paper as well as the Eugene Register-Guard. When he missed out on a job with the Oregonian, Harry pivoted to promoter... of everything.
Throughout the 1950s, he promoted boxing matches and preseason games for National Football League teams at Portland’s Multnomah Stadium. He brought NBA All-Star games and the Harlem Globetrotters to the newly opened Memorial Coliseum.
Harry saw a future at the "Glass Palace" and he found a group of investors to purchase a franchise in the Western Hockey League in 1960. Under Glickman’s guidance as General Manager, the Portland Buckaroos were an immediate success and won the league title in their first year, while regularly attracting more than 10,000 fans per game. The Buckaroos won WHL titles in 1961, 1965 and 1971. Glickman remained dedicated to hockey until the Buckaroos folded in 1974, but he also had been seeking an NBA franchise for the Rose City. It all came together when he brought together three investors to launch the Trail Blazers in 1970. Glickman ran the Blazers as General Manager, while also running the Buckaroos for several seasons as its owner.
Glickman oversaw the roster moves that built the Blazers into the NBA champions in 1977, and served as GM until 1987, when the original investors sold the team to Paul Allen. He served as team president until 1995, when the Blazers moved from Memorial Coliseum into the Rose Garden (now Moda Center).
In honor of his work the media center at the Rose Garden is named for him, as is the annual honor for the state’s top professional athlete at the Oregon Sports Awards. He wrote his autobiography, “Promoter Ain’t a Dirty Word,” in 1977, and was named Portland First Citizen in 1992. He won the John Bunn Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in 2019.