Rick Adelman: Remembering his roots, with golf and gratitude
Chemeketa Community College gave him a start in coaching, and the NBA coach paid it back with a long-running benefit golf tournament to raise money for basketball scholarships
From the August 2017 issue of Pacific Northwest Golfer magazine
by Ron Bellamy
SALEM, Ore. — Through head coaching jobs for five NBA teams, two trips to the NBA Finals and more than 1,000 victories, Rick Adelman always remembered where his career began.
That place was Chemeketa Community College in Salem, which in 1977 hired Adelman to serve as its men’s basketball coach, among other duties. Adelman had played seven years in the NBA, including three with the Portland Trail Blazers, and was working as a shoe rep for Converse in southern California.
He was 31 and Chemeketa was his first coaching job at any level and it didn’t pay much. He rode buses on road trips, made tight budgets stretch to capacity, worked in the counseling department to recruit students, eventually taught physical education classes and was touched by the stories of hard-working young athletes trying to prove themselves in sport and in the classroom.
Adelman also forged lasting friendships, and after he became the head coach of the Trail Blazers in 1989, he agreed to lend his name and his participation to a golf tournament to benefit the Chemeketa basketball program.
The 28th and final version of the Adelman Golf Classic took place August 7 at Illahe Hills Country Club. Over the years, Adelman never missed a tournament, and never failed to affably entertain participants and sponsors with NBA stories during the post-golf luncheon.
