Flip the script: Mark Muñoz’ lesson about bullying

THIS APPEARS IN THE MONDAY AUGUST 22, 2016 EDITION OF THE BUSINESS MIRROR.

Flip the script: Mark Muñoz’ lesson about bullying

by rick olivares

The Air Jordan III is one of now retired mixed martial artist Mark Muñoz’ favorite things. That is, of course, outside his family. Mark has worn them for 25 years now. Like many kids growing up fixated with Michael Jordan and the whole sneaker culture, the shoe is a symbol since the shoe is quite expensive back then and today. It is also a reminder of what happened on a dark day day back in 1991 when Muñoz’ world changed.

“I was 13 years old and in eighth grade then,” recalls Muñoz as his mind races back to his middle school days. “I  was walking down the corridor when some guys were checking me out. One of them said, 'Hey, yo! Break yourself off those MJs.’ That meant they were going to beat me up for my shoes. When they said that I felt instantly fear and then a little later, anger. All I knew was I needed to get away from them so I scurried away.”

"One day, they (five of them) finally caught up to me. I got held down, beaten, battered, kicked, and punched because of what I had on my feet. As I was held down, I had this the feeling of helplessness. There was nothing I could do.

I was in a situation I couldn’t control. When I went home, I was overcome by a whole gamut of emotions — profound sadness, a feeling that I was an ugly person, that I am loser, and more. It left me depressed."

After the bullying incident, Mark found it tough to go back to school. Before he would pass through a hallway, he would scout it first for any signs of the kids who took his kicks. If the coast was clear he’d pass right through. If not, he looked for other ways to get around. His self-confidence was shot and it affected his schooling. 

That all changed when a friend of his introduced him to wrestling. "Because of me being bullied, I dove into wrestling. It taught me discipline and tempered the raging fires in me,” Muñoz said with a calmness that shows a man at peace. 

Muñoz became two-time State Champion, High School National Champion. He won a silver medal for the US Junior National Team. "And it got me a scholarship to Oklahoma State University,” he grinned. 

The bad situation turned into a good situation. While competing for the OSU Cowboys, he was named an All-American twice. He compiled 121 wins and won a NCAA National Championship in 2001 as a senior. After working as an assistant coach in OSU, they won another national title in 2003. He later transitioned into MMA where he compiled a 14-6 record. 

“The discipline I learned from wrestling helped me overcome more than just my fear of being bullied,” explained Mark. “It also gave me the inner strength to deal with setbacks.”

Muñoz strung up a string of impressive victories over C.B. Dollaway, Demian Maia, and Chris Leben to hike his record to 12-2. The came a devastating loss to Chris Weidman in July of 2012 that left him with a broken foot, a bum elbow, and his confidence in tatters. After a year-long sabbatical, he came back to win against Tim Boetsch in UFC 162. However, he followed that up with three consecutive losses that sent his MMA career in a nosedive. “Prior to the losses to Lyoto Machida, Gerard Mousasi, and Roan Carneiro, I had only lost in the first round once and that was to Matt Hamill in my sixth fight. All those three consecutive losses came in the first round and that had me thinking that I’m done.”

Except that good things happen to good guys. Muñoz got the send-off he wanted in 2015 with a win and in front of thousands of rabid Filipino fans in the first ever UFC event in Manila in May of 2016. “It’s the perfect way to end my career and I couldn’t ask any more,” he proudly said. “The bullying incident got me into wrestling. Wrestling got me into MMA and now I am here in the Philippines to talk about wrestling and bullying and how to deal with it.”

Years after winning the national wrestling championship with OSU, Muñoz had become a local celebrity in Vallejo. He was in the papers, doing local television and radio shows. The mayor even declared  April 30 as Mark Muñoz Day.

While watching a football game, Mark saw one of those kids who bullied him all those years ago. Their eyes met and Muñoz made his way towards him. The other guy handed over his child to his wife and raised his fists and got ready to fight Mark who was now a muscled six-footer. Except that Muñoz totally flipped the script. “Hey, I want to thank you,” he said to his albatross. "Because if it weren’t for that experience I wouldn’t be the person I am now.”

They shook hands and went about their own business. "Forgiveness is a huge thing” said Muñoz reflecting on the incident that changed him forever. "Forgiveness is not for the other person but me. If I harboured all that resentment and anger then I would want to beat him up. But two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Mark doesn’t know where the other guy is or how he is doing. On the other hand, Muñoz has gone on to be a MMA star and is universally respected by his peers. In the UFC, he known to be the nicest fighter on its roster. His record of professionalism has seen him rewarded as the fight organization has appointed him as an ambassador for the UFC.

And aside from running his own gym in Lake Forest, California where he teaches wrestling, Mark Muñoz gives talks everywhere about the ills of bullying and what they can do to combat it. And he wears his Air Jordan IIIs while at it.

Mark's fave Air Jordans

LA Clippers' mascot Chuck the Condor is ready for Robin Lopez

Chuck the Condor and his sidekick Brandon say they are ready for the mascot killer, Robin Lopez. 

The challenges of Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams

Interviewing Michael Carter-Williams. Before the interview proper, I told him the premise of the piece which is about adversity and asked if he is all right with that topic and the subsequent line of questioning. He agreed and the man is a trooper. I wish him all the best.

This appears on philstar.com

The challenges of Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams

by rick olivares

“Sometimes I think that adversity is my middle name.”

Michael Carter-Williams, the Milwaukee Bucks point guard who is in town for the NBA3x3 event, stifled a chuckle.

“Right now, I feel tired. Jetlag,” he offers. “That’s actually the easiest of my concerns."

It seems that all his young 24 years on this planet, Carter-Williams has had to deal with adversity. As a high school freshman, the precocious talent led Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School to a league championship. And he stood only five feet and nine inches tall then (Michael now stands at 6’6”). 

In his college frosh year in Syracuse, he mostly sat on the bench. However, he bounced back in his sophomore year putting up stellar numbers.

In his first year in the NBA, Carter-Williams, drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers, was named Rookie of the Year giving the perpetually underachieving ballclub some good cheer. Yet after his injury-shortened second season, he was traded to the Bucks. 

In the midst of his second year with the Bucks, Michael’s hearing things about he isn’t the solution to their point guard woes and that he can’t shoot.

Does it bother him? 

“Yes, it does,” he admits and wonders if this is some cruel sophomore jinx. “In college, I was angry because I wasn’t playing. I performed well in practice and I thought that I could be in the rotation and help out. It’s hard for me to deal with being benched because I generally have a positive attitude and I try to pick up teammates who are feeling down because of being benched or their poor game up. But at the same time, I was struggling with not playing and I found it increasingly hard to practice what I was preaching.”

It’s hard for a young baller to do some reflecting and soul searching when there are constantly cameras and audio recorders in his face. However, during the quiet and long moments during the flight to Manila, he’s had time to think.  

“Back in ‘Cuse, I found a way to deal with my unhappiness,” he recalled. "That meant putting in a lot of hard work in the gym and practice. I got myself stronger and did everything I could to improve. It all paid off.”

In Philadelphia, he had that dream start to his professional career that doesn’t happen to most NBA draftees. Selected 11th overall in 2013 by the 76ers, Michael was named Rookie of the Year. However, as a team, the Sixers took a step back from the previous campaign’s 34-win season, stumbling to 19 in Carter-Williams’ rookie year. The following season, they won one fewer match. And Carter-Williams was traded away for future draft picks.

The trade was a sobering moment for Carter-Williams. “When you enter the league, you know trades happen and that it’s also a business but you never think it will happen to you. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect. I never got traded before. I felt like the team gave up on me. And when you’re rebuilding and trying to do something special, it hurts.”

“The pro game forces you to grow up fast. One good game is just one good game. Tomorrow is another day where you can have a bad game. In the NBA you need to have a short memory because you have to let go of the losses and bad games and come out and play the next. So a huge part of what we do is mental. You hear ‘mental toughness’ thrown around a lot in sports and as you get older, you realize how true it is.

“In Milwaukee, the guys are great; they welcomed me. They also lost some players so there’s a rebuilding process. And it was a little rough at first.”

At this point, Carter-Williams paused. He’s heard the analyses and radio talk about his shooting woes and wondering if the Bucks were better off keeping Brandon Knight, the guard he replaced in Brew City. During his second year with the Bucks he was in and out of the starting line-up as Gianis Antetokounmpo thrived in a starring role. Sharing the point guard duties is another Syracuse alum in Tyler Ennis. And this current off-season, Milwaukee’s front office brought in former Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Matthew Dellavedova.

Pondering the point guard logjam in Milwaukee, Carter-Williams considers this a challenge. “In the NBA you have to be strong. As I said earlier, you need a short memory with the bad. So far, I have always been trying to prove somebody wrong. In the first two years, I wanted to play well against the teams that didn’t draft me. Now it’s working on my all-around game and jumpshot."

“When I was in college, I was upset that I was sitting. Now I understand that you do what you have for the team. If it means me starting or coming off the bench, it’s fine. The coach knows what’s best. I just have to get ready.”

“What this has all taught me so far — college and pro basketball? I have to constantly remind myself of that everyday it’s all about working hard every single day of your life and not taking anything for granted. And handling adversity."

Adversity. 

Michael Carter-Williams paused one more time. “Maybe a few years from now, I’ll laugh and say, ‘Adversity? Oh, I had that for breakfast.’"

Post-War Blues II The Legend of Moro, Choly, and the Quest for the Holy Grail of Collegiate Sports

Post-War Blues II 

The Legend of Moro, Choly, 

and the Quest for the Holy Grail of Collegiate Sports

by rick olivares

Even during those early days of basketball, height was already might. Imagine then the towering La Salle Green Archers with 4/5 of their starting unit of Martin Urra, Tony Banggoy (brother of San Beda Red Lion Lito Banggoy), Ramoncito Campos, and Juan Muñoz who all stood at least six feet tall (guard Alex Montilla was the only a shade or two less) when they confronted an Ateneo team whose starting unit had a pair of 5’4” players in team captain Choly Gaston and Oscar Battalones and the 5’5” Freddie Campos. Ole Orbeta was the tallest Blue Eagle at 5’11.” The Blue Eagles were built for speed and fast and furious excitement. They were the Ginebra San Miguel of their time for their popularity extended beyond the gates of Ateneo’s Padre Faura campus where its perimeter was still littered with crosses from the war dead. 

Gaston, dubbed “the Cagayan Cyclone” (he was actually from Negros but studied at both the Ateneo De Cagayan and Ateneo De Manila) by sportscaster and sportswriter Willie Hernandez, was a pest on the court. Choly not only inherited jersey #11 from brother-in-law Baby Dalupan but picked up from where he left off with a hellacious form of defense. No lead was safe when Choly was on the court. If a player wasn’t too careful with the spheroid, the next sight he saw was Gaston hightailing it to the opposite end for a two-handed lay-up off the window. During an exhibition game against the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, the hardcourt wizards’ Marques Haynes asked for a volunteer from both Ateneo and NU to strip him of the ball. Haynes’ claim to fame was being acclaimed as the world’s best dribbler and taking the ball away seemed a daunting if not improbable task for anyone. NU’s Tony Villamor went first and was toyed around by the dexterous skills of the Globetrotter. 

When it was Gaston’s turn, the people who had packed the coliseum to the rafters began chanting: “Choly! Choly! Choly!” Haynes smiled at the Errol Flynn-mustached Gaston and dared him to do the impossible. Three seconds later, the Globetrotter’s toothy smile was replaced by shock and horror as the Cagayan Cyclone did the improbable by swiping the ball away as the jam-packed coliseum erupted into cheers.

Sadly though, those moments were all the post-war Ateneo teams had. They fielded some pretty good teams and played some great and memorable games but still a seventh cage title for Ateneo seemed like the search for the Holy Grail.

Moro Lorenzo broke NCAA scoring records but it wasn’t enough to get the team over the hump. Lorenzo lamented the focus on him and tried to deflect praise and attention. “Often times the glory of a victory is given to the point-making forwards,” pointed out the Blue Eagles’ three-time team captain. “No one says anything about the men who control the rebounds, about those who feed the forwards, and those who stop the opponents’ offense even at the cost of their own disqualification. Does anyone congratulate Ole (Orbeta), Pepot (Gonzalez), or Tits (Tañada)? Some don’t realize that there are five men on the court and sixteen men on the team.” The losing seemed to get to Lorenzo that after a bit, he looked forward to the football season for some respite. 

Even on the pitch with the country’s top-rated goalie in Louie Javellana, the NCAA Football championship was just as elusive as ever. In a game against San Beda at the football field at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, two late and controversial penalties were called on Ateneo that the Bedans gleefully took advantage of. A downcast Ateneo gallery booed off the referee as their rivals from Mendiola escaped with a 2-1 victory. Suddenly, a livid Chito Tinsay stormed out of the dugout and lunged at the referee. It was a sight that elicited both laughter and horror for there was the referee, ball in hand looking back with utter terror on his face with a steaming mad Ateneo football player hot on his heels. “The referee broke track records that day,” joked one Ateneo supporter who was on the stands. In the dugout after game, Fr. Austin Dowd chastised the team and a thoroughly embarrassed Tinsay who had a towel draped over his head. “What a disgraceful game that you played,” thundered Fr. Dowd (as if he didn’t have a loud enough voice already) reciting a litany of the team’s transgressions during the game. “And you, Mr. Tinsay, a most disgraceful thing that you did to the Ateneo.” By now, Tinsay was nearly in tears. “You should be ashamed of yourself… you missed the referee!” With that moment of levity, the heavy cloud of gloom that hung over the Ateneans’ locker room dissipated. “That was classic Fr. Dowd,” remembered Fr. Bert Ampil. “He always knew what to say at the right moment. He didn’t really mean what he said but he had a way of waking up spirits.”  

   

But there was a student-athlete then who held sway and transfixed the post-war generation with his fighting spirit... Luis “Moro Lorenzo. “We’d be 20 points down with two minutes left in the game but you’d be hearing him egging his teammates on: “Pwede todo via. Pwede todo via. Kaya pa ‘yan,” recounted Orbeta who played with Lorenzo for two years. “Kung may Filipino idol noon, it was Moro Lorenzo,” fondly recalled Fr. Ampil who was in high school then. “Even the players from other schools recognized that he had something about him that the others didn’t have. Probably other players were even better than he was somehow pagtayo ni Moro dun sa harap ng audience o pagtayo niya sa basketball court there was something about him. There was a leader there that we all wanted to be also. That’s what he did for the Ateneo.” It was Lorenzo’s indomitable spirit that inspired the young Fr. Bert to join the cheering squad. “It was that first cheer rally that we had back in the old gym and Moro was introduced to the student body. The first words that came out of his mouth were, “My fellow Ateneans.”  He went on to talk about what it meant to play for the Ateneo and how the team badly needed cheers. “I was not a cheerleader then,” recalled Fr. Bert. “And I thought at that time, ‘If it truly means that much to them then I’ll cheer. I’ll never get a chance to play basketball for the Ateneo. I’ll never get a chance to play football for the Ateneo. But I can do my bit on the stands for the Ateneo.”

Little did Fr. Ampil know that an incident up in the stands will forever be lodged in his memory even if it’s a bitter one. In a 1948 basketball game against De La Salle, Ateneo had all but wrapped up another win against the rival Green Archers. The Blue Eagles held a one-point lead with two seconds remaining and the blue and white gallery had just struck up the opening strains of “Roll Up the Victory” when Archer Eddie Decena took the ball, dribbled into La Salle’s side of the court, stepped back onto Ateneo’s side (that was clearly a backing violation) then threw up a heartbreaker of a shot at the buzzer. “Drama talaga” recalled Fr. Bert who was on the first-ever expanded cheering squad that year (the cheerleaders numbered an unlucky 13 that year). “I remember, we were already singing the part of "Roll out a Victory, we ask for nothing more!" and then – WHAM!!! Tapos. Ang sakit. Hanggang ngayon. I can still feel that song ending with a squawk in the throat!”

“I don’t remember too many of the games I played back then,” confided Baby Dalupan who was on his last playing year then. “But I will remember that game as long as I live. We protested because Decena clearly was guilty of a backing violation, but the technical committee didn’t see it our way.” 

Cheerleader Totoy Avellana in another déjà vu moment was so angered by the loss that he led the Ateneo gallery to another wave of non-stop cheering that prevented the La Salle side from belting out their victory song. “La Salle couldn’t get a word in,” chuckled Avellana’s longtime classmate and friend, the late Bonny Ocampo. “They got tired of waiting for Ateneo to stop cheering so they packed up and left. It was another moral victory.”   

Ateneo would gain a measure of revenge two years later in 1950 despite being cellar dwellers with a 2-8 record. Their only two wins that long and lost season? Against De La Salle. “Winning those two games against La Salle was our championship,” consoled Poch Estella who played on those hardluck teams.

The post-war teams did not immediately produce championships. The “luckless” years taught the value of hard work and patience. One best exemplified by Jose Cacho who was Ateneo all the way. Called “Kalawang” or “Rusty” on account of his freckles, Cacho whiled the time away during the Japanese occupation by playing football. After the war, he once more donned the immaculate white tank tops (the only blue on them was the name “Ateneo” and the number of the player) for the Blue Eaglets whose fortunes mirrored that of the senior squad’s. “Losing bothers me sure,” explained the 5’8” forward. “But you don’t wear your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.”

Sometimes the team called on Divine Intervention just to get that win or two that would propel them to the next level. “We prayed a lot of Hail Marys then,” said a wistful Lorenzo. “But in the end, we were just as we prayed in the Athlete’s Prayer -- standing by the road and cheering the winners as they go by.”

It wouldn’t be too long before Ateneo fielded a winning team. The start of the 1950’s found the Blue Eagles gradually getting better. It wasn’t that their opponents got weaker. Far from it. In fact, Ateneo ran smack into the San Beda Red Lions that paraded its storied line-up bannered by “the Big Difference” Caloy Loyzaga who displayed a polished game far beyond his young years. Mapua had the explosive Tanquintic brothers Tancho and Cadi. Letran countered with the legendary Murder Inc. behind the prolific Louie Tabuena, Lauro “the Fox” Mumar, former Blue Eagle Nilo Verona, and Ramon Manulat. Ateneo in the meantime was bolstered by its former team student-manager, Mike Littaua. But Littaua would prove to be no scrub. He would provide the team with much needed scoring sock and endgame poise together with another deadshot in Ramchand Motomuul. “We knew we had a team that could compete,” recalled Orbeta. “And we just wanted to win one for Choly and Poch who were graduating.”

Choly Gaston was quite a sight to behold in and out of the court remembered many who were at the school at that time. “He was like this larger-than-life character despite his small size,” said Moying Martelino. “He had this movie-star mustache and would drive to school in the chopper (motorcycle) that made him look real cool.”  “Despite being the smallest one on the court, he was certainly one of the most exciting,” chipped in Poch Estella. Choly would sky to collar those rebounds and his zigzagging through less agile defenders for a deuce that would bring the crowd to its feet. “Tremendous athleticism that young man,” added Estella who helped set screens for Gaston to puncture the hoop. “The moment Choly stepped onto the court as a Blue Eagle, he was a superstar.” 

Talented and exciting as the Blue Eagles were, they still had to win the NCAA cage title (for San Beda was lording it over the league at this point). In the wake of Moro Lorenzo’s graduation (he would take up higher studies at Cornell) and the sudden loss of recruits Lauro Mumar (to Letran), Bonnie Carbonell and Lito Banggoy (to San Beda) who were expected to vault the team back to elite status, Fr. Edgar Martin, the chief architect of Ateneo’s athletic program, puffed on his pipe, grunted, and pulled out the schematics for Plan “B.” 

Plan “B” wasn’t some fresh faced recruit. The team had enough stockpiled for a championship run and all it needed was a little more seasoning. The back-up plan called for bringing back a familiar face. One who helped steer Ateneo to the first grand slam in local cage history from 1931-33 and would eventually coach the Blue Eagles… Bibiano “Bing” Ouano. Ouano was the MVP of that storied Blues and Whites team that won an amazing 25 straight games in 1931 and featured such heavy hitters as Primitivo Martinez, Raul Torres, Amador Obordo, Jing Roco (the person he was replacing as bench tactician), Jess Suarez, and Pete Schlobohm among others. And that move would prove to be the right one for a return to the glory days was just around the corner. 

Guesting on The Score August 18, 2016 Remembering Coach Baby Dalupan

With Marco Benitez and Anton Roxas, two dudes who I respect and have done a lot. Happy to guest on the show for a second successive night.

My tribute to Coach Baby Dalupan from his book author: The Measure of a Man

On the bench for the Ateneo Blue Eagles during NCAA 1973.

This appears on abs-cbnnews.com

A tribute to Coach Baby Dalupan from his book author:  The Measure of a Man

by rick olivares

When you talk about the late Coach Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan, the first thing that will pop into everyone’s mind is “champion coach.”

And he sure was as he virtually everywhere and on every level. In fact, until Tim Cone recently eclipsed him as the all-time winningest PBA coach, he held that accolade in the pro-ranks.

In the summer of 2006, I sat down with Coach Baby at his home at Loyola Grand Villas in Quezon City. At that time, I was writing an article about the 30th anniversary of the 1976 NCAA champions, the Ateneo Blue Eagles, which he coached at that time alongside the Crispa Redmanizers in the PBA.

When I asked him as he is all right being remembered as a champion coach, he smiled and politely declined. Puzzled, I probed. After all, I beyond the sports pages and his exploits on the hardcourt, I didn’t know the man at all.

“I would like to be remembered for other things as well,” he said. And he proceeded to tell me a couple of defining moments in his long life.

You should be a friend to everyone.

Right before the Americans returned to liberate the Philippines during World War II, then 20-year old Baby went out with some friends. They had lost track of time and by the time they realized it, they had violated the curfew imposed by the Japanese Imperial Army. Dalupan and two other friends holed up in a nearby hotel thinking they’d be safe. 

But Japanese soldiers rounded them up and brought them to Fort Santiago. “I suddenly feared for my life,” he recalled as a lump noticeably formed in his through. Clearly, more than 60 years after the incident, the memory of the incident was vivid and telling. They were brought into a room where they were confronted with three men with baskets on their head. “This was the dreaded Makapili,” he thought of those collaborators who pointed out to Filipinos who were active in the guerilla movement. “I prayed, and I always do, but none never so hard. I prayed that I never wronged these Makapili before the war. I prayed I never did anything bad to them that they would single me out as a form of revenge.”

Fortunately, all three of the young men were set free. 

“What that incident taught me was to be good to everyone and not to make enemies,” said the coach with a pained smile. “All my players? They are like my children. I might have gotten angry at some referees, maybe opposing players and fans but that was just in the spirit of the game."

You cannot go through life without a sense of humor.

In 1972, Dalupan returned to his alma mater, the Ateneo De Manila University, to coach the Blue Eagles. Coach Baby played for the blue and white during his grade school and college years. He never tasted a basketball championship but he did find glory on the football pitch with his long-time teammate, Luis “Moro” Lorenzo.

“Coaching was something I got into because I had nothing better to do,” he related of his entry into the coaching profession. His family founded the University of the East. In need of a basketball coach, his father, tapped him to mentor the Warriors. With Coach Baby at the helm, the Warriors (sans the ‘red’ at that time, won seven straight titles). Thinking he was done, he was coaxed out of retirement by then Ateneo President Fr. Jose Cruz. And finally, he returned to coach the Blue Eagles (from 1972-76) winning two titles in the process.

During the 1976 season, the Blue Eagles were murdering an opponent on the court en route to their then-record 14th (and last NCAA championship) when the supporters of the losing team lost all sense of sportsmanship and began to pelt Dalupan with coins, lighters, and balled up newspapers.

The coach surveyed his bench and called seldom-used center Jimmy Tioseco. “Jimmy!” he barked. The amiable Tioseco, excited at the prospect of getting some playing time quickly ambled over. “Yes, coach,” asked the freshman center. 

“Stand behind me,” motioned Dalupan. “Kanina pa ako binabato.”

With the taller Tioseco standing behind the coach, he was no longer getting pelted. The Blue Eagles on the bench all cracked up.

A mischievous smile appeared on Dalupan’s lips as he recounted that memorable moment. “We were playing very tight and very tense at that time. My feeble attempt at humour had everyone laughing. It was just my way of telling the boys to relax. And we won by a blowout."

You must love your family.

In the summer of 1947, the Ateneo Blue Eagles were on a barnstorming tour of the Visayas. The tour’s goal were two-fold — to play some meaningful tune-up matches prior to the first NCAA season of the post-war period, and to recruit some talented Visayan players.

While in Iloilo, the team was invited to attend a prom. And in that prom, Dalupan met and was smitten by Maria Lourdes Gaston, or “Nenang” as she was fondly called. “I was bold enough to tell her that one day, I would marry her,” recalled Dalupan this time with a wide wide smile that you’d think the Red Sea had parted once more. “She (Nenang) wasn’t amused. She gave me a hard time. There were times that I thought nothing would happen. But as we say in school, “it’s giving it that One Big Fight.”

“Bing" (Nenang’s nickname for Coach Baby) was persistent and I was impressed. And that paid off for both of us,” she chimed in during that day in 2006 when I had paid them a visit. 

Two years after that first meeting in Iloilo, Bing and Nenang were married.

“I’ve been blessed with eight children,” beamed Coach Baby (seven girls and one boy). “When the games were done, there was no other place I wanted to be but home. I loved being with my family. They are the most important people in my life.”

“The championships? They are good. Am happy to have achieved them. I am also happy that it made the players, assistant coaches, the owners, and the fans happy. But I think that a true measure of a man is when you take him away from what he is known for. That’s what I’d like to be remembered for — as a man who loved, was good to everyone, and who lived life to the best of his abilities.”

Nine years after that initial interview with Coach Baby, I was asked to help write his book. And it was an honor to do so and I wrote five of the seven chapters. At the time of its production, there was a lot of concern about getting it done as quickly as possible without compromising the quality. Given his age, 91 at that time (the book was launched on his 92nd birthday, October 19, 2015 at the Ateneo Grade School), the production team was worried that something might happen to him. True enough, he contracted pneumonia sometime before his birthday. But the coach was able to receive treatment just in the nick of time.

During the launch of “Virgilio “Baby Dalupan: The Maestro of Philippine Basketball, I asked coach to sign my copy. He took my hand and said, "Ricky, thank you for this. You kept writing about me and my teams all these past years. I appreciate it."

My reply, "I think I should be thanking you, coach. God bless you."

Ten months after his book was published, Coach Baby passed away. I thought about writing about his championships and what he meant to Philippine basketball. In fact, I wrote three drafts of this “tribute”. But I kept going back to that question that I posed to him that fine summer day back in 2006, about if “champion coach” was what he’d like to be remembered by.

His answer was truly revealing and it showed the depth to the man.

Thanks, coach. It was a pleasure watching, writing, and knowing you.

One Big Fight!

Post-War Blues I: Moro Lorenzo and the Luckless Ateneo Blue Eagles

The 1947 Ateneo Blue Eagles. Baby Dalupan is encircled in yellow.

Post-War Blues I 

Moro Lorenzo and the Luckless Blue Eagles

by rick olivares

The empire of the rising sun had set in Asia and the Pacific but over the newly liberated Philippines, a bright new day had risen. The Ateneo campus in Padre Faura was in ruins much like the rest of the war-torn capital. But hope was in fresh supply. 

Already the Quonset huts (made from galvanized iron sheets, thatch materials, wire screens, and wood) that subbed for classrooms were brimming with students eager to pursue their studies that the war put on hold. Ateneans who had transferred to San Beda, La Salle, and other schools (Ateneo opened a couple of years later than the other two after the war) were coming back in droves.  Among these balik-Ateneans was Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan who whiled the time away at Far Eastern University (as the former Institute of Accounts was now known). “How can you not want to go back?” he said. “That’s where I belong.”

Ateneo had given her finest sons to the defense of the motherland. Men like Cesar Basa who along with Jesus Villamor flew headlong into a battle of no return. Ramon Cabrera who was brutally murdered after refusing to divulge the names of Filipinos in the underground movement. And Manuel Colayco who had died during the liberation of UST which was used as an internment camp by the Japanese.

But in the summer of 1947, there emerged a new set of heroes, those of the athletic kind to give the blue and white faithful something else to cheer about.

Fr. John McCarron S.J., Ateneo’s Sports Director, sounded off the clarion for try-outs for the Blue Eagles. 30 Ateneans heeded the call and underwent some pretty back breaking trials in the campus’s battered gymnasium under the watchful eye of the pre-war skipper of the Hail Mary squad, Simon LaO. Despite LaO being back in the fold, the excitement surrounding the team was the inclusion of Luis “Moro” Lorenzo who had finally moved up from the junior ranks. “Moro Lorenzo was an exciting player,” recalls Moying Martelino, former Basketball Association of the Philippines Secretary General who was in the Ateneo high school then. “He would shuffle the ball with his hands to confuse his opponents then suddenly shoot it from any angle! The incredible thing about that was pasok pa yung tira niya! You must have strong arms and very good accuracy to do that.” 

The team’s first goal was to participate in benefit games for the reconstruction drive of the Ateneo and use these games as a springboard for the first post-war NCAA basketball tournament. But the beneficiary wasn’t to be the Ateneo campus in Manila. Fr. William Masterson S.J., Ateneo Rector, had cast his eye towards a sprawling estate in Barangka overlooking the Marikina Valley. Fr. Rector, with the gift of foresight, knew that the spacious lot with its majestic view of the verdant valley below would be perfect for the expansion of the Jesuit school which would be celebrating its 100^th year in the Philippines in over a decade’s time. The rebuilding of the Ateneo had brought smiles to the mournful lips of Fr. John Morning, the Dean of the College, who had seen Ateneo razed to the ground twice already (the great fire of 1932 and World War II) and as he blessed the newly-formed basketball team, students couldn’t help but notice the bounce in his step. The war was over and the Jesuits could get back to the business of educating young men eager to get their country back on its feet.   

On September 6, 1947, the Ateneo sent-off its ambassadors in shorts with a colorful pep rally at the battle-scarred gym with its bullet-riddled roof. With the charismatic Totoy Avellana, Boy Tuason, and Nano Lopez bursting out into “Blue Eagle the King” the Blue Eagles, all 16 (Team Captain Moro Lorenzo, Joe Concepcion, Baby Dalupan, Rudy Daza, Ric Francisco [father of Danny Francisco], Pepot Gonzalez, Minging Imperial, Joe De Jesus, Simon LaO, Louie LaO, Bien Ocampo, Johnny Raquel, Vic Silayan [who would later gain recognition as one of the finest actors of his generation], Pete Villarama, Vicky Zamora, and Pepet Gaston) of them trotted onto the floor. The Guidon noted that the cheer rally made everyone realize the importance of rebuilding the Ateneo “so that the spirit might be felt, honored, and possessed not only by us ‘lucky guys’ but also by other boys following us – Ateneans of the future.” 

This edition of the Blue Eagles was the de facto defending champs since the last NCAA basketball tourney concluded barely over a month before the Philippines was dragged into a global conflagration. That champion Blue Eagle team was skippered by Simon LaO and featured stalwarts like Bobby Jones, Duke Cortez, Tony Montenegro, Jimmy Hampton, and Nilo Verona (who would later coach the 1969 Blue Eagles to victory). It was also Simon LaO who beat La Salle in a most memorable football championship when he booted the winning goal from way out just a day before the war came to the Philippine shores. And six years later, he wanted nothing than to conclude his collegiate career with another title. 

After reciting the pledge of Loyola and a stirring send-off by Fr. McCarron, the Blue Eagles with Coach Alfred Del Rosario leading the way, went on a barnstorming tour of not just Manila but also in the provinces where people welcomed them like wartime liberators. The team won legions of new fans but also paved the way for many a southern Filipino boy to dream of donning the Ateneo jersey one day. And as a bonus, guard Baby Dalupan would meet his future bride in Lourdes Gaston whose brother Choly would don the blue and white in a few years time. 

Initially standing in the Blue Eagles’ way was that storied foe from Mendiola, the San Beda Red Lions of Manuel Llora and Rafael Alberto. What followed was a titanic battle that matched the pre-war Ateneo-San Beda tussles in color, booming cheers, and heart-stopping action at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. When the final gun ended the match, the Blue Eagles came out on top, 31-29 behind the deadly accurate one-handed shots of Moro Lorenzo (at this time, he was the only player who threw up these kind of shots) and the stellar defense of Baby Dalupan whose pick pocketing skills bordered on grand larceny. 

On board the nascent Philippine Air Lines, the Blue Eagles invaded the southern islands of Bacolod, Iloilo, Davao, Zamboanga, Cagayan, and Cebu playing against local teams and winning 12 out of 15 games. Even better, they managed to raise badly needed funds from gracious alumni and patrons who believed in the Jesuit education. With a successful pre-season and the emergence of Lorenzo as a scoring force, Ateneans were salivating at the prospect of an unheard of 7^th league cage crown. 

During those days, it cost 50c to watch a basketball game and then as it is now tickets were in short supply so they had to raffle off tickets to sports-starved Ateneans. Those who weren’t able to get inside the venue gathered outside and waited for news of the game’s progress from those lucky enough to get in. Determined to get in on the action, Ateneans would cheer also from the outside drawing many a look from passers-by. With a nervous Fr. John Delaney S.J. looking on from the tunnel leading to the dugouts at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, Ateneo began its defense of the crown on September 11, 1947 with a return match against San Beda. If the Red Lions were hoping for some payback that was easier said than done. One would have thought that the old hoop house along Vito Cruz and Taft was being shelled by long range artillery for Lorenzo, Simon LaO, Pepot Gonzalez, Ric Francisco, and Bien Ocampo unleashed quite a barrage of long toms that the Red Lions failed to recover from. The Bedans tried to mount a couple of spirited second half rallies only to be smothered by Dalupan who once more reprised his role as game hero by stripping opposing ball handlers of the leather spheroid to scoot in for unmolested lay-ups. 

The battle wasn’t just relegated to the hardcourt but at the stands as well. Sensing their team faltering against the relentless Blue Eagle onslaught, the Bedan cheerleaders erupted with a resounding cry of “Animo San Beda! Beat Ateneo!” Ateneo cheerleader Totoy Avellana smirked, motioned for the gallery for silence then signaled for a thunderous cheer of “Fight!” “What takes them five words to cheer, we only do it in one,” crowed Avellana after the game.

Olegario “Ole” Orbeta, who played clean-up in the juniors team, recalled the buzz on the campus. “That win was like we had a chance to go all the way that year. And Moro Lorenzo… was like a matinee idol in school.” Not to mention from their neighbors just across the wall. Assumption girls suddenly had their new “pin-up boy” from the Ateneo.

The revelry was short-lived. Four days later, the Jose Rizal Heavy Bombers strafed down the Blue Eagles 40-39 in overtime. From the opening gun, the Bombers behind Calilan, de la Rosa, and Victoria lit up the blue and whites from the outside. Blue Eagles Coach Del Rosario, calm despite the barrage from a foe that seemed on target with every shot, tapped Lorenzo who came off the bench and ignited a furious rally ending the 3^rd canto behind 28-29. “We got ‘em where we want them, fellas,” encouraged Lorenzo sweat dripping from his brow. With “Fabilioh” belting from the bleachers, Lorenzo took to the floor with Joe De Jesus, Pepot Gonzalez, Ric Francisco and Louie LaO to start the fourth and final quarter. Moro nailed a couple of booming outside shots that catapulted Ateneo to a 34-31 lead for the first time in the game. Still the Bombers refused to fold under the pressure. With 15 seconds left in the game, JRC wrested back the lead 39-37. With time running out and Lorenzo covered by a tight guarding Francisco Calilan (the father of later Blue Eagles coach Cris Calilan), the ball was swung to Louie LaO nailed a shot from some 30 feet out to send the game into overtime.   

The five minute extension was an exercise in defensive basketball. So fierce and tight was the defense on both sides that no one could score. With time running out, Pepot Gonzalez was whistled for a foul that sent JRC’s De La Rosa to the line who only canned one freebie. But that was more than enough to secure the win for the Shaw Boulevard-based squad. With the jubilant Heavy Bombers celebrating as if they had won the championship, the Hail Mary team sat dumfounded. “The aura of invincibility was stripped,” lamented Dalupan. In the locker room, a morose Pepot Gonzalez stripped off his Chuck Taylors and wept.  

In the single round season, the team at 1-1 could ill afford a loss what with dangerous Mapua lurking and a game against the highly-fancied Green Archers looming in the horizon. There was a break in the games and the two week lay-off gave the Blue Eagles time to heal from that stinging loss. On September 29, 1949, the Cardinals and the Blue Eagles squared off in what has become a storied game that has bordered on the mythic. The Cardinals edged the Blue Eagles 43-40 when Moro Lorenzo ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. It was that game that a livid Totoy Avellana had the Ateneo gallery cheering their lungs out long after the game had ended. Coliseum officials had to kill the lights to send the dazed Ateneans stumbling home in disbelief. “It was ours!” thundered Avellana. “Ours. Dammit. And that really hurt.” 

The loss was doubly painful for not only did Ateneo absorb its second straight setback but they were up against the undefeated Green Archers led by Tito Eduque, Eddie Decena, and Eddie Sharruf. The game had a super-charged atmosphere for the rivalry, dormant since 1941, was white-hot as ever. La Salle was still smarting from that sudden death win by Ateneo to claim the ’41 football crown. Ateneo on the other hand still sought to repay the Archers for their chucking fried chickens at their Padre Faura campus after the upset loss for the 1939 basketball title. The cheerleaders on both sides wasted no time in getting their galleries all pumped up. Totoy Avellana’s howitzer for a voice called for Ateneans to launch into the “Artillery Yell.”

From the opening tap ball (as it was called then), Ateneo cranked up its defense by several notches and held DLS to a solitary point in the opening quarter. When Simon LaO drained a shot from well beyond today’s three-point range to cap the Blue Eagles’ 14-point explosion in the 2^nd canto it was as if to say that there was no way Ateneo was going to lose this game. With time perilously running out on the Taft-based squad, the Ateneo cheerleaders led the gallery in singing a song that was part cheer and part jeer:

The Eagle will fly. 

Too High, Too High!

It never will fall. 

Will fall! Will fall!

Your hands will shake!

Will shake! Will shake!

Your arrows will break!

Will break! Will break!

Green Archers, Good bye!

Good bye! Good bye!

The Eagle will fly. 

Too High, Too High!

And the arrows did break with the blue & whites romping away with a 12-point win 32-20. Now at 2-2 and the losing skein stopped at the expense of its rival, Ateneo next trained its artillery yell at the Letran Knights for a chance to play for championship. At this point, La Salle was on top of the standings with a 3-1 card. Mapua toted an identical 2-2 slate (the Cardinals lost to La Salle and Letran) with their Padre Faura rivals. 

If anyone thought that the Blue Eagles were emotionally spent after the La Salle game then they were badly mistaken for they shellacked the Knights 52-35. With “Arriba Letran!” reaching a deafening crescendo after going up 4-0 at the start of the game, the Hail Mary squad finally got its offensive might going when Baby Dalupan broke the scoring drought with a nifty reverse lay-up. Before long, the Ateneans let loose a torrent of outside shots from their shock troops (bench players) like Pete Villarama, Bien Ocampo, and Louie LaO. Rudy Daza took centerstage for Ateneo (in the absence of Pepot Gonzalez who was nursing a sprained ankle) in this game when he handcuffed the Knight’s prolific Louie Tabuena. The Knights groped for points and fought back behind the efforts of Aldiosa and Quiogue, but the LaO brothers – Simon and Louie --- finished off the Knights with booming shots that drew louder cheers from the blue and white gallery. With win no.3 assured, “Roll Out the Victory” wafted from the bleachers. 

The win assured Ateneo of a one-game play-off on October 23, 1947 with their erstwhile conquerors the Mapua Cardinals for the right to play La Salle for the NCAA Basketball Championship. But beating them was altogether something else. Mapua now coached by former UP Maroon and Greens star player Johnny Schlobohm, played a bruising game with their stratospheric frontline of Seeberger and Lim and featured two former Blue Eagles in Rafael “Jing” Roco (the father of actor and Atenean Bembol Roco) and Ben Gadi. All throughout the season, Ateneo lived and died with its outside shooting. With Moro Lorenzo and Ric Francisco misfiring, Coach Alfred Del Rosario opted to take the game inside but the lane incursions of Dalupan and Ocampo were smothered. Simon LaO, in his final playing year, refused to give up and kept the Blue Eagles’ flickering hopes alive by going on a one-man scoring binge but Mapua was hitting on all cylinders this day as they routed Ateneo in the final quarter. It was a twin kill by the Intramuros-based squad. Their junior team, the Redbirds had earlier eliminated the Blue Eaglets from championship contention. 

With Mapua’s victory cheer belting from the stands and the Ateneans weeping on the bench, one of the Blue Eaglets who stayed on to watch and cheer his senior brothers surveyed the heart-rending scene before him. What started out as a season filled with hope and promise ended when the team limped home. Simon LaO was graduating that year and everyone hoped that a championship would be a fitting send-off for one of its favorite sons. Moro Lorenzo had an up and down rookie season and he felt he let the team down during the season’s biggest game when his offense vaporized. He would take his game up to a higher level over the next few years even leading the league in scoring but still team Ateneo wouldn’t win its 7^th crown. Rusty Cacho, who was an emerging star with the juniors team, watched his crestfallen schoolmates and comrades-in-arms from the bleachers, wiped the tears that welled up his eyelids and vowed to lead the blue and white back to glory one day.  

Aftermath: La Salle claimed its second NCAA basketball title at the expense of the Mapua Cardinals. Jing Roco who played with the Cardinals that year would return to coach the Ateneo two years later and would win titles in 1957 & 58 with players like the legendary Ed Ocampo, scoring machine Bobby Littaua, the man in the middle Jimmy Pestaño, and tough-as-nails Poch Gayoso. The members of the 1947-48 Blue Eagles moved on to the second semester sports such as football. The Blue Booters, coached by former star player Arsenio “Arsenic” Lacson, also failed to defend their crown when they lost to La Salle 0-1 in the final game of the elimination round. Baby Dalupan was team captain that year and still wonders to this day how he made the line-up (actually Arsenic liked his grittiness and toughness which the coach believed was a hallmark of a great player). Later in the year, Ateneo and La Salle took part in a benefit game to aid in the reconstruction of St. Scholastica’s College which was ruined in the war. La Salle won their second cage title of the year when Ateneo, leading almost all throughout, collapsed late in the game. The High School Blue Eaglets evened things out by thrashing the La Salle Greenies to cop the High School trophy behind Ning Ramos, Greg & Tito Tañada, Rusty Cacho and the rebounding king, Ole Orbeta. Cacho would make good his promise when he led the Blue Eagles to back-to-back titles in 1953 & 54 against the San Beda Red Lions that had the great Caloy Loyzaga and two Ateneans: Lito Banggoy and Bonnie Carbonell. How they ended up wearing the red and gold is another (sad) story.