This Used to be Our Playground

This Used To Be Our Playground
by rick olivares

She is our Boston Garden. Our Madison Square Garden. Our Coliseum. Our Parthenon (this ancient Greek temple in Acropolis was dedicated to the goddess Athena from whom the name Ateneo is derived making this a rather apt comparison).

She is also where we used to wait for our sundo after class. Where we had our PE classes. Where we held our Baccalaureate Mass as grade school students. Where the sound of booming drums, like the sound of rolling thunder that echoed across Katipunan, beckoned us like the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Only the pipers wore jackets of blue and white and beat on drums with the letters “AMDG.”

This December 3, 2008, the Blue Eagle Gym, or the Loyola Center to an older generation of Ateneans, will be fifty-nine years old. There has been no significant renovation since its construction in 1949. She did receiving new flooring not too long ago; the fourth such change since the mahogany one that was first tread upon by the Blue Eagles and the Mapua Cardinals 59 years ago.

The flooring notwithstanding, Loyola Center for me was my hardcourt of dreams. I only knew that it held a lot of historic basketball games. As a grade school kid, I could claim to have seen Fritz Gaston, Steve Watson and Joy Carpio play for Ateneo that is if seeing them from their legs, socks, and shoes counts. That was the only permissible view from the grills outside as my grade school allowance couldn’t afford me a ticket.

Shh. There’s the squeak of hi-tops, the thump of leather balls on wood, the shrill whistles that elicited some of the most colorful protests known to man, and those booming drums ... I swear there is no sweeter soundtrack to hoops heaven.

There too is the stifling heat. The humidity that sucks you dry despite the dozens of fans installed around the arena. There are the dull and dim lights that seem like you’re watching a game film dating back to the technicolor 70s that are unfriendly to both the digital and television camera. The locker rooms are spartan although unimpressive but it’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and a few cabinets can do. Time was all you had was a long bench to sit on as you changed into your sweats. But this is the court where Rusty Cacho, Ed Ocampo, Francis Arnaiz, Steve Watson, Chot Reyes, Mike Facundo, Jun Reyes, Danny Francisco, Richie Ticzon, Vince Hizon and the Dark Ages teams played on. ... how can Mohammed not be drawn to this mountain?

When I first played in the Ateneo Basketball League years ago, it was the greatest thrill to be able to don a jersey with “Ateneo” emblazoned in front and to play on that court with the seal of Loyola at center court. It was like living a boy’s adventure tale and a communion with history and old ghosts.

The Blue Eagle Gym has definitely seen better days. It leaks, creaks, and well, stinks. Thank God they did something about those pitiful rest rooms! Aside from the new coat of paint on its facade, the only new coat it annually acquires is the rust that falls from the steel girders that have held the behemoth in place for nearly six decades. The gym which originally cost some PhP 650,000 to construct was the first building erected in the Loyola campus when the Ateneo was transferred from Padre Faura and that sort of tells you what the Jesuits’ priorities are. The gym could accommodate up to some 7,500 people with an unobstructed view of the court and its proceedings. And believe it or not, the building was designed to allow natural ventilation with the temperature some 10 degrees cooler than Metro Manila’s average.

But there is hope on the horizon. Word is that the venerable gym will be undergoing a massive facelift in the near future. Hopefully, it is said, the first of it begins next summer. The idea is to be on par with the best arenas. It will be a sports center non-pareil complete with coffee shops and eateries. Some hope that it will be a venue for more than the UAAP games.

That’s just a dream right now. The agents of change have to hurdle the Old Guard who unfortunately have the money and the power to block any such move. Ask them though what have they done for the Old Gym along Katipunan Road? It’s a historical site, they argue. It's a sweat shop I say. Even Yankee Stadium and Boston Garden have been torn down and there is significantly more history in the two of them that we can possibly fathom. Yet like our country we have this deficiency when it comes to caring for our heritage.

Dreams are what the gym is all about. About playing ball for the good old blue and white. And of playing in our version of the Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden, the Coliseum, and the Parthenon.

If you aren’t of the sporting sort and haven’t waxed sentimental about the old gym, try driving by at night when Katipunan Avenue is ablaze with a kaleidoscope of lights from the restaurants, coffee shops, watering holes, and the vehicular traffic that have made this stretch of land a popular nightlife destination and a curse. You’ll notice that the gym stands out with the massive eagle on its facade. There are those two riveting and piercing red-lit eyeballs (which are slightly bigger than tennis balls) of a blue sentinel to watch over our school.

And if you’re still not careful, she’ll reel you inside her aerie. Hey, it’s past 8pm. Either it's the women's volleyball team or a bunch of Ateneo alumni still playing a pick-up game of hoops. They're out there carving out their name on the hardwood of Ateneo history. The next thing you know, you’re lacing up those hi-tops.