Hall of Fame

Saturday night, this writer had the distinct pleasure of co-hosting the awards ceremony of the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame or ASHOF, with the extremely talented and intelligent Bea Daez. The event brought back a flood of memories, and new insight into how we perceive our sports heroes. I was also pleased to be surrounded by dozens of my elders in the sports community, who are gradually dwindling in number. 

As ASHOF president, Atty. Ogie Narvasa explained, the rules for making it into the hall are quite stringent. Winning one gold medal or championship (in modern times, in the UAAP, other leagues or the national team), is not enough. It might not even be enough to make you part of the discussion. Two would put your name up for consideration. The key word was dominance, and the inductees truly embodied the word. But there were caveats, quite a few. If an athlete was sanctioned by any league for a serious offense, their name would be scratched. Graduation is a requirement. Furthermore, ASHOF only considers athletes 20 years after finishing their studies, and only if they have not been involved in any unsavory incidents.

As early as 1975, the Ateneo Alumni Association (AAA) had been considering instituting a hall of fame, under the leadership of its president, Atty. Naning Yenko. The enshrinement ceremony has been held every three years since 1979, save for 2015. That first ceremony was historic, as it was held in the newly rebuilt Manila Hotel. Notable first batch stars installed into the Hall are Luis “Moro” Lorenzo, Sen. Ambrosio Padilla, “The Maestro” Baby Dalupan, Mayor Arsenio Lacson and the Martinez brothers, who played for the Blue Eagles before and after World War II. Four members of the ASHOF were on the country’s first Olympic basketball team which placed fifth in Berlin in 1936.

In an impressive display of sportsmanship, Lorenzo invited all his fiercest rivals in basketball in the 1940’s: San Beda’s Caloy Loyzaga, De La Salle’s Tito Eduque, and Letran’s Lauro Mumar. We can only imagine the war stories (and varying versions of them) told that night.

In 2015, there was no awards and installation event as there were no nominees who were eligible to the ASHOF. As mentioned, one of the major signatures of an awardee is that he or she must have been done with Ateneo schooling for 20 years after he or she has achieved the necessary points to be installed to the ASHOF. This was the only year the ASHOF did not hold this event since its inception.

Consistently, all of this year’s awardees at “Fabilioh XIII” gushed with gratitude. Family, friends and faith were uniformly and effusively mentioned. Some told stories of extreme adversity, overcoming health issues, and, paramount, maintaining good grades. A vast number of inductees past and present were also honor students. It may seem daunting, but two past batches had as many as 20 inductees. The smallest batch counted only four.

Looking back, this would perhaps be my one choice that I would consider doing over. After surviving tryouts for the seniors basketball team (then coached by Ogie and his brother, former PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa), I gave up basketball to search for my biological father. Dual citizenship was still illegal then, and becoming a future national player would have caused me to surrender the citizenship I acquired from my father, and ironically, impede my quest to find him. I wonder what would have happened had I gambled on following that passion, being held up to that higher standard. We’ll never know.

Like many students, we find our passions and our relationships in school. We often marry our college sweethearts, send our kids to our school. I joke that I “donated” my sons to the Ateneo, but they themselves were adamant about going. To this day, I’m trying to figure out how we all managed. But easy is never rewarding. Easy never gets you far.

As keynote speaker Cecilio Pedro said, the race is until the end, until we all join each other in eternity. The battle is not just in our school, our community or even just our country, but to change the world.

Hmm. Maybe there should be a Hall of Fame for that.