The quip was in response to a query as to his hopes for the former NCAA rivals, the Ateneo Blue Eagles, themselves primed to become champs with one more win in the UAAP Finals.
Clearly, the man endearingly called MVP, who’s been lending moral support and then some to both schools, was alluding to the twin escape acts pulled off by the Lions and Eagles on separate full-house days at the Big Dome.
San Beda survived an improbable rally, from 20 points down with 8:30 minutes left, by the PCU Dolphins, who flubbed their chance at a game-winning basket. Some Bedans with whom I watched that game live on TV claimed intervention by the heavenly duo of Sto. Niño de Praga and Our Lady of Montserrat.
For its part, Ateneo executed an improbable, last-gasp, midcourt in-bound play with a second left, recalling buzzer-beaters from previous editions of the Hail Mary squad.
We were tempted to tell Manny: What those games must do to your ticker. On both occasions, he was seen at courtside, pensive and disturbed in the SBC game after earlier exhilaration over that big lead, and in the AdMU game, slumped in his seat and seemingly frustrated, when at a point down after a riveting see-saw affair, all that was left was a timeout, a throw-in and a tick of the clock.
A good thing MVP was a former squash player, now turned badminton aficionado. Otherwise the spirit of support for an Alma Mater might not manage to run apace with all the excitement and sudden downturns in the reality game.
Besides, which Alma Mater, in the event of having two, should one stand by, when separate-league push comes to cross-league shove? After all, it’s become curious how our Manila-bred allegiances pulsate whenever a school we’ve attended, sometimes for years on end, matches up with yet another.
Only last February, at the Mendiola Homecoming, the attending survivors of our Elementary Class of 1956 were called up to the nave after Mass (in the most beautiful and beloved chapel in the world) to each receive our gold medals for loyalty.
We were the primary-grade silver jubilarians for Year 2006. All of 50 years had passed since we last enjoyed those campus rites of puberty. Now in our 60’s, we’ve revived that very early camaraderie and have met often for "Barkadahan Nights" – increasingly intent on holding on (to memories) as we bid farewell to more and more of our batch with each passing year.
Very relaxed, many of us retired or semi-retired, the others still "retarded," we are as children again, without the bullies and blowhards that used to disturb the merry proceedings of company and friendship.
A good number of us went through all of high school in the same Benedictine campus. Now we look forward to surviving four more years down the road so we can be there when our High School Class of 1960 hosts the homecoming as the regular silver jubilarians by 2010. We now hope we don’t have to go through many more such games as that crucial one last Monday when suspense theater took a toll on our tickers.
It was at that February Homecoming when we first got a look at the current seniors team that was presented onstage before the familiar quadrangle, and introduced as the team that might just end a 28-year title drought.
We were surprised to note that the Red Lions of 2006 – now gaining better support after decades of frustration when our perennial champion juniors team kept losing its star players to better-funded college teams – had a big black "import" named Ekwe to beef up the veterans in Aljamal and Angeles, the carryover juniors in Menor, Hermida and Taganas, and a prized recruit from Davao in Escobal.
When Koy Banal was introduced as the new coach – and with the awareness that stronger alumni involvement was now being led by Manny Pangilinan – I told my seatmates at that open-air party: "Hey, this team is going somewhere this year. Mark my words."
As the basketball season opened and progressed, true enough, Samuel Ekwe of Nigeria proved to be a force in the paint, for defense and rebounds. It was clear that his basketball legs were yet at sea; he was a newcomer to the game. He couldn’t shoot, could hardly dribble. But he was a quick study as an athletic big man; he timed his jumps well, and had good reflexes.
What impressed me was the overall balance exhibited by a team that also knew how to play good to great defense. In game after game, the Red Lions would clamp down on an opponent for a quarter while making a searing run. Soon enough we nearly swept both rounds, winding up with a 13-1 slate, a dozen of those in succession after a fold-up against PCU on a night when Coach was busy with his job with the pros.
We had a solid starting five: Ekwe at center to man the boards; Aljamal at power forward as the go-to scorer; Menor at small forward or guard, usually assigned to match up defensively with the rival hitman; Angeles as the cool, collected playmaker with an occasional long bomb; and Escobal – as playground-savvy as Menor – switching point and two-guard positions with Angeles. The reserves were being built up as role players: Taganas, Maggay and Gamalinda to spell the frontliners, with Tecson, Hermida and Evangelista as the second-string backcourt.
By the time we were to officially dethrone Letran, Bedan alumni had already gotten wind of the prospects for ending the 28-year spell on the NCAA’s 82nd year. Our batchmates in the USA, so many of them, and with whom we had established an Internet loop, kept e-mailing for details. They asked for game tapes, until they were told to log on to The Filipino Channel’s website for the schedule of delayed screenings.
All the hoopla, as they say, rose to a crescendo and a climax with our entry to the Final Four as favorites. Our Class of ’56/’60 had TV-viewing Barkadahan Nights for the Finals, albeit not a few wanted to watch live at the Araneta Center. The majority prevailed: there we couldn’t bring beer and whisky, or gorge on sisig and chicharon, smoke and take a pee whenever we wanted. We had to be privileged: this was the senior circle watching the SBC seniors capture a title after nearly three decades.
Of course we all remembered that last crown in 1978, with Chito Loyzaga, Frankie Lim, Jayvee Yango et al. But we recalled with more fondness the champs of 1960, our year: Caranceja, Oyson, Ascue, "Big Boy" Reynoso et al. And for those of us who were there as graders, most memorable because most fabled were the three title years leading to the Zamora Trophy of the ’50s, gifted us by unarguably the best Pinoy cager of all time: Carlos "King Caloy" and "King Bedan" Loyzaga.
For that prized trophy which could only be taken home by gaining three titles, we repeated from 1951 to 1952. Ateneo broke the run and repeated as well, 1953 and 1954. In 1955 Loyzaga came back to lead the Red Lions to a defining triumph over the Blue Eagles for the NCAA crown, and the Zamora Trophy.
And so we pray for one more miracle for MVP (He D’ Man!), for the Eagles to win it, too, deferred as it must be after Milenyo’s deluge. The buzz is if that happens (and the oldest university in our part of the world doesn’t play the spoilsport), Mr. Pangilinan might arrange a special exhibition game between SBC’s and AdMU’s champion teams.
I say make that a best-of-five for good measure, as a throwback to the 1950s rivalry. NCAA teams have suffered of late from a bit of an inferiority complex against those of the UAAP. Well, since one particular glamour team pulled out all the stops for recruitment, the younger league has had the more "price-worthy" players.
The 2006 Red Lions upset the defending UAAP champs in the Home and Away invitational early this year, but had a tough go at it, against FEU, which failed to make it to the UAAP’s Final Four. Can SBC stand a chance, then, in that planned Collegiate Champions Sweet 16 tourney this month?
Here’s hoping the plans push through, even if a knockout tourney often results in shock losses. There’s high drama with that format. In case San Beda doesn’t get to meet Ateneo in the finals, then that’s where MVP should come in with the Dream Match. Or should it be before? No matter. It should test a lot of loyalties. (Actually, I want to see Aljamal go up against Kramer, and Escobal against Escalona. Angeles and Menor might find Intal and Tiu tough match-ups, but then there’s always Ekwe to backstop them in the paint. Stingy defense vs. fluid offense. Koy Banal vs. Norman Black. Hmmm.)
Manny Pangilinan was of SBC E.S. Class of 1958, and H.S. Class of 1962. Then he took his college degree from Ateneo. That explains the twin Alma Mater dilemma, if it’s that at all.
At the big party for the renewed Animo!, he gamely posed for photo-ops with our class reps, which included his cousin Ding Reyes, the guy behind Chocolat. The rest were Dr. Serafin "Boy" Hilvano who himself became a collegiate star for the U.P. Maroons, former cheerleader Bong Obligacion, our class valedictorian Vic Alfonso, Frankie Casal of Philippines Free Press, Henry Yao, Jess Lindayag, and this Bedan chronicler.
Then we posed, too, with the triumvirate of Benedictine fathers that has led San Beda College into a new era of respectability, not only because of its basketball team: Fr. Anscar Chupungco, Rector and President; Fr. Tarcy Narciso, Abbott; and Fr. Benigno Benabarre, whom we have been most fond of, since he’s even more senior than us: the comeback kid from Madre España who just might be over a hundred years old.
That night, spontaneous pledges totaling 720K were announced, earmarked for further support. Umpa! Umpa! The fat little Indians led the tribal cry. Coach Koy asked the big boys to commit to a back-to-back. We can do it, too. Some Bedans are even roaring for a dynasty!
What’s evident is that Bedan pride has been revived, the animo regained, and a new spirit born of a long-delayed championship that owes itself to more determined alumni participation, thanks in large measure to MVP.
Fresh weather permitting, the champion cagers would have been treated to a Hong Kong blowout starting last Friday. Guess on whose account? This Friday, October 6, the victory celebrations continue with a Bedan Night from dusk to dawn at My Brother’s Moustache on Sct. Tuason corner Sct. Madriñan in Quezon City, with an all-Bedan band among the music-making guests. (Call Boy Vinzon at 0917-894-8120 for table reservations.)
Let’s roar together, and roar some more for the rest of October! Then the repeat, then the dynasty for the old Red and White!