Ely Capacio passes away

MANILA, Philippines - Eliezer “Ely” Capacio, a champion player who rose to be a champion coach, able team manager and all the way as good chairman of the PBA board of governors, passed away yesterday morning a few hours after a massive stroke.

He was 58.

The Palo, Leyte native was a consummate gentleman and PBA pillar who sat on the league board as alternate representative of Petron Blaze at the time of his death. “Ely Capacio was my YCO idol. Being with him in the PBA board for three years was a real blessing. He always fought for what was right and not necessarily the political or most convenient route,” said current PBA chairman Mon Segismundo.

“Loyalty to the PBA and the sport he loved best trumped narrow organizational lines. He is the type of sports executive our basketball nation needs. We will badly miss him,” Segismundo added.

PBA commissioner Chito Salud said Capacio touched and enriched lives as a great basketball player, coach, corporate executive and former chairman of the PBA board. “He will be missed,” said Salud.

Capacio served as PBA board chieftain in the 2005-2006 season, hurdling the test with flying colors.

With him at the helm, the league rose out of the  doldrums, posting eye-popping figures for live gate attendances, television ratings and gross earnings.

He was among those real educated players earning a degree in Liberal Arts, major in Behavioral Sciences and sub-major in Psychology at La Salle, and masters of business administration at the Asia Institute of Management.

Thus after playing and coaching, he was well equipped when he plunged into the corporate world.

As a player, the 6-foot-4 power forward donned the national colors in the 1975 and 1977 ABC Championships (now FIBA Asia) and in the first SEA Games, also in ’77. He debuted in the PBA with YCO in 1979 and played for eight seasons, winning two championships with the old Elizalde franchise.

He also coached Tanduay in its last two conferences in 1987, but it was with Purefoods that he won a title in the 1991 All-Filipino Conference.

Capacio and his Purefoods team bannered by Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codiñera, Dindo Pumaren and his younger brother Glenn topped coach Yeng Guiao and his Sarsi squad, 3-2, in the best-of-five.