Trail Blazers playing at historic Memorial Coliseum

By Katy Brown, KATU Sports and KATU.com Staff Published: Oct 14, 2009 at 4:13 PM PST Last Updated: Oct 14, 2009 at 7:08 PM PST
The Memorial Coliseum »Play Video
The Memorial Coliseum "suits up" for Wednesday night's Blazers' game, the first game back there in 14 years for the Portland basketball team. Photo courtesy Mike Ranweiler.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Trail Blazers head back to their former home at the Memorial Coliseum. This is the first time in years that the coliseum's court has hosted Portland's professional basketball team.

As part of the Trail Blazer's 40th anniversary season, the team will play at the Memorial Coliseum in North Portland Wednesday night for the first time since leaving 14 years ago. This is a pre-season game, against the Phoenix Suns, and it was sold out as of Wednesday afternoon.

Adding a little more meaning to the game, the Suns were the last team the Blazers played here - back in the spring of 1995.

For today's Blazer team, this game also is a lesson in Portland basketball history. After all, the last time the Trail Blazers played at the coliseum most of the players on the team today were, well, in grade school.

"Were they playing there when Drexler was here?" Greg Oden said. "Okay, so yeah I've seen those games."

"They stopped playing in 95?" said Martell Webster. "I was only 9 years old."

"Wow, 9 years old," Juwan Howard said. "I guess I am getting up there in age."

Juwan Howard is the only current player to make an NBA stop at Memorial Coliseum.

"If I recall, I think I played only twice there," Howard said.

Actually just once, his rookie season, and an injury kept him on the sideline.

Nate McMillan made a lot of visits with the Sonics in his 12-year career. "...Back in the day, I had a fro," he said.

The Sonics often left the coliseum as the losing team: "It was always a sellout," McMillan recalls, "and it was a hard game to get on the road."

Mention of Memorial Coliseum takes Ime Udoka back to high school: "We have a bad memory of losing a state championship there," Udoka said.

Udoka and the Jefferson Democrats fell in the state championship game to Churchill of Eugene back in 1995.

The building gave Udoka the chills in college too.

"It's definitely colder and older when I was with Portland State," said Udoka. "They had the Winter Hawks floor under there so it would always be cold."

There is no ice under the court tonight, so the air in the coliseum is considerably warmer than it could be. Meanwhile, those who make tonight's game also will be joining the memory of former President Gerald Ford - who became the first president to attend an NBA game, right here in these stands.

The Blazers won that game, back in 1974, and it's a move they hope to pull down again tonight from the Blazers' first home.