Ramsay, "Jack" John T.
Basketball
b. Feb. 21, 1925, Philadelphia, PA
Ramsay entered St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia in 1942. After serving in World War II, he returned to school as a sophomore and captained the basketball team in his senior year. He then played in the Eastern Basketball League, taught school, coached high school basketball, and won a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
He returned to St. Joseph's in 1956 as head basketball coach. In his eleven seasons there, the school won or shared seven Big Five championships and had seven seasons with 20 or more wins. His record was 232 victories and only 72 defeats.
In 1966, Ramsey became general manager of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, who won the NBA championship in 1968. Ramsey took over as coach the following season and remained until 1972, winning 174 games while losing 154. He became coach of an expansion team, the Buffalo Braves, in 1972 and got them into the playoffs three times in four seasons, compiling a 137-109 record.
The Portland Trailblazers hired Ramsay in 1976 and he guided them to an NBA championship in his first season. Led by center Bill Walton, Portland won 49 of 82 regular season games and then took 14 of 19 in the playoffs. In ten seasons, Portland won 453 games while losing 367 under Ramsay.
His last coaching stop was with the Indiana Pacers for just two years. Ramsey resigned in 1988 and became a frequent television commentator, most notably on TNT's coverage of the annual NBA draft of college players. During his professional coaching career, he had 864 wins and 783 losses. When he retired, he was second only to Red Auerbach in career victories.
Ramsay has written two books, Pressure Basketball and The Coach's Art, and has done radio and television commentary on NBA games. He also conducts coaching clinics. In 1997, he was named one of the 10 greatest coaches in NBA history.
