Blazers History: What’s In A Name?

ThePortland Trail Blazershave over 50 years of tradition woven into the fabric of their franchise.

Throughout the years, there have been moments of darkness, amazement and euphoria.

But none of that would be possible without the formulation of the identity of the Trail Blazers, which became the name of Portland’s first major professional sports team on this day in 1970.

Blake Byrne, a general sales manager at KPTV in Portland, is credited with originally coming up with the name after being selected in a drawing of 172 submissions.

“We feel that Trailblazers reflects both the ruggedness of the Pacific Northwest and the start of a major league era in our state,” team founder Harry Glickman said in an interview with a local newspaper.

It’s hard to imagine a life where the Blazers are named anything else. Could you imagine if they were the Portland Pioneers or Lumberjacks? It would have changed everything we have come to know.