Jack Ramsay Dead

     Longtime Miami Heat television analyst Dr. Jack Ramsay has died at the age of 89. He broadcast the Heat on Sunshine Network and WBFS-TV Channel 33 along with play-by-play announcer Eric Reid and sideline reporter Dave Lamont from October 1992 until May 2000.
     He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. He had the second most victories with 864 as a head coach in NBA history behind Red Auerbach when he stopped coaching in late 1988.
     Ramsay continued as an NBA game analyst with ESPN Radio where he announced the NBA Finals with Jim Durham for over a decade. They were a tandem until Durham unexpectedly passed away early in the 2012-13 season. Ramsay would leave the broadcast post in May 2013 due to health issues.
     Prior to becoming an announcer, Ramsay was involved in the NBA in several capacities with much success. He joined the Philadelphia 76ers as general manager and they won the NBA title during his first season there in 1966-67. In the process they stopped the Boston Celtics string of eight consecutive NBA championships which is still an NBA record.
     He would later coach the 76ers from 1968-69 to 1971-72 and then became the head coach of the Buffalo Braves from 1972-73 until 1975-76. Ramsay joined the Portland Trail Blazers in 1976-77 as head coach and they won their only NBA title that season as they were led by Bill Walton. He would stay there until the end of the 1985-86 season.
     He had one more coaching stint with the Indiana Pacers from 1986-87 to 1988-89 and would later join them as a television analyst. It would be the beginning of his broadcasting career and he moved on to work for Prism as the Philadelphia 76ers television game analyst.