Ray Blume

Bernard Ray Blume (born September 23, 1958) is an American former basketball player. Blume achieved his greatest career success at the collegiate level as a guard for an Oregon State University Beavers men's basketball. During Blume's four-year tenure the team went 86–27 and made the NCAA tournament twice. Blume won All-American honors in 1980 and was All-Conference in 1980 and 1981. He was inducted into the Oregon State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004 and into the Pac-12 Conference Basketball Hall of Honor in 2017.

Blume spent the 1981–82 season as a reserve for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association before playing the sport professionally in Europe.

Biography

Early years

Bernard Ray Blume, commonly known by his middle name, was born September 23, 1958, in Valdosta, Georgia. He attended Parkrose High School in Portland, Oregon, for whom he played basketball.

Collegiate career

Blume was recruited to Oregon State University by future Naismith Hall of Fame coach Ralph Miller. He was part of a 7 freshman recruiting class which joined 6 sophomores in making the 1977–78 OSU team the youngest in school history. Joining the 6'4" Blume on the 1977–78 OSU team was Rose City backcourt rival Mark Radford, at 6'3" another tall guard who would later spend time in the NBA. While Blume came off the bench during his freshman year, from the 1978–79 through the 1980–81 seasons, Blume and Radford would comprise a potent backcourt combination for OSU, helping take the team to the NCAA tournament during the pair's junior and senior seasons.

The Beavers finished Blume's freshman campaign with a record of 16 wins and 11 losses, with the curly-haired freshman coming off the bench to see action in all but two games. Blume's path to the starting five was paved by the decision of previous starter Brian Hilliard not to return to OSU to play his junior season owing to a nagging injury and loss of focus.

Together with 6'11 center Steve Johnson, another future NBA talent, OSU was tapped for post-season play in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), bowing out in the first round. The season also proved to be a break-out year for Ray Blume personally. During this first of two extremely successful seasons, Blume logged more than 1100 minutes of action, upping his scoring average to 15.4 points per game as well as his shooting percentage, which finally rested at .564. To the senior starting core of Blume, Radford, and Johnson were added two more future NBA players, small forward JC-transfer Lester Conner and highly touted Oregon-born freshman power forward Charlie Sitton.

After his short NBA career was over, Blume played basketball professionally in Europe.

Life after basketball

Following his professional basketball career, Blume returned to Portland, Oregon and began a lengthy career in the public sector working for the Multnomah County Roads Department.

Regular season

Footnotes