Bill Schonely Wife; Meet Barbara White

Bill Schonely, the Trail Blazers’ original radio broadcaster who coined the iconic phrase “Rip City” that became synonymous with Portland and its basketball team, has died.

He was 93.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

With his deep voice and memorable catchphrases like bingo-bango-bongo, and lickety-brindle-up-the-middle, Schonely broadcast games for the first 28 seasons of the Blazers, including a two-year stint from 1992-94 as the team’s television play-by-play man.

During a game in the team’s inaugural season, in February 1971, Schonely blurted “Rip City, all right!” after Jim Barnett made a long shot during a comeback against the Los Angeles Lakers at Memorial Coliseum. Writers and statisticians looked at him in wonderment, but eventually told him “Leave it in.”

By the time Portland roared to the 1977 NBA championship, “Rip City” could be seen on T-shirts, shoes and even coloring books.

Since 2009, the team used the phrase on one of its uniform options, with “rip city” in lowercase letters replacing Blazers on the front of the jerseys. Its debut marked the first time the uniform had said anything other than Portland or Blazers.

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