A 70-Year-Old Forgotten Chef Was Behind the Blazers' Lone NBA Title

The Blazers played the 1976-77 season with remarkable energy.

The first time I experienced this now-familiar feeling of foolish optimism about the Trail Blazers was shortly before that magical 1976-77 season, after I heard Jack Ramsay was coming aboard as head coach. I picked up a copy of The Sporting News and squinted at our roster, managing to convince myself that, yeah, with a few lucky bounces maybe our basketball boys could make some noise. Just maybe.

Dr. Jack and the Blazers did just that, of course. Oh, what a glorious day that was. But too few people know the true secret of Ramsay's success, which started when he hired a full-time director of player nutrition. While this is commonplace now in professional sports, that Blazers team was the first to have a full-time nutritionist.

Ramsay's first and only choice to fill the position was a classically trained chef whose restaurant in the South of France he had dined at while on vacation the previous summer. But then-70-year-old Abelarde Bechamel Étauffien, who did not know any English, was understandably reluctant to move to the Pacific Northwest.

Ramsay, intent on landing his man, famously flew to France and pleaded with Étauffien to take the job. The coach and chef arrived in Portland on the same flight. Within days, Étauffien was pumping out meals of rich, dense, fatty foods that he promised would take a long time to digest, thereby ensuring players would maintain high energy levels.

After searching my shelves, I turned up a dog-eared copy of the spring 1977 issue of the Portland Dietary Register, which ran a cover story on the shy but good-natured Étauffien and his vision for the Blazers.

Breakfast was typically quiches—ham and asparagus with hollandaise, roast beef, eel pie—with eclairs, croissants and biscuits served with an array of jams, all washed down by strong, hot coffee. Lunch might start with French onion soup or shellfish bisque, sturgeon roe or pâté with crackers, gherkins, snails and eels with butter and garlic, followed by a slow-cooked grouse or boudin sausage.

Team dinners were always an elaborate feast, as Étauffien believed that by inundating the players with heavy foods after a long day of basketball, he could ensure they go to bed early and sleep deeply. He felt it important to end a meal with a digestif or nice glass of port.

The Blazers played the 1976-77 season with remarkable energy. Anyone who followed the team would tell you it was as if the players were possessed by something, that something had gotten into them—and it was true. It was Étauffien's rich French foods.

Portland faced the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals, and after falling behind two games to none, stormed back to claim the title.

After the season, Étauffien seemed intent on returning to his home and family outside of Bordeaux, but Ramsay was able to persuade the chef to stay with the team for one more season. And the 1977-78 season started in spectacular fashion, with the Blazers winning 50 of their first 58 games, thanks mainly to Étauffien's nutritional regimen.

Tragically, Étauffien became so homesick that he left town around Christmas, taking with him the hopes of another Blazers title.

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