Harry Glickman

Harry Glickman (May 13, 1924 – June 10, 2020) was an American journalist, promoter, and sports executive. He was one of the founders of the Portland Trail Blazers, and the team's president from 1987 to 1994.

Early life and career Glickman grew up in Great Depression Portland, the son of Polish Jewish immigrant Bessie, who worked in the ladies' garment industry. Glickman also had a job as a paperboy. Bessie would trade letters in Yiddish with her family in Wysokie until 1939, when the Nazis invaded the country, and sent Glickman's relatives to the Treblinka extermination camp. After returning to Oregon, he graduated in 1948. While a student at Oregon, he became a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity (he was president of the fraternity in his senior year) and an editor of the alumni magazine, Old Oregon. When a job offer at The Oregonian fell through, Glickman took to promoting sporting events.

In 1960, he was the founder of the Portland Buckaroos of the Western Hockey League, a now-defunct minor hockey league (and one of several leagues to bear that name). The Buckaroos were one of the most successful franchises in minor league hockey history, winning three WHL championships, and playing in three others, during their 13 years in the Western Hockey League. The WHL would fold in 1974, largely as a result of losing major market teams in Los Angeles and Vancouver to the National Hockey League (NHL) and others, including Denver and Phoenix, to the World Hockey Association (which later merged with the NHL). The Buckaroos ultimately folded in 1975, after moving to a different league.

Portland Trail Blazers Glickman was interested in creating a basketball team in Portland as soon as a bond for the Memorial Coliseum was passed in 1954. In 1970, Glickman, working without any investor support, won an expansion franchise with the National Basketball Association, subject to coming up with $3.8 million in a matter of days. Glickman soon rounded up 3 wealthy real estate developers led by Herman Sarkowsky of Seattle, who then brought in Larry Weinberg of Los Angeles and Robert Schmertz of New Jersey. He was cited as Portland, Oregon's First Citizen of the Year in 1992.

On February 15, 2019, Glickman was named as one of two 2019 recipients of the John Bunn Award (with Del Harris), awarded by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a lifetime achievement honor for those "whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional and/or the international game."

Death On June 10, 2020, Glickman died at the age of 96.