Bonfire ruminations
by rick olivares
Last Saturday evening, 15
December 2018, I attended the bonfire celebration (as I am an Ateneo alumnus) for
the various Ateneo de Manila University UAAP champion teams at the grad school
parking lot grounds.
Amidst the festivity, I took a
moment to reflect as I am wont to do in moments like this. I thought of three
things.
The first was back in 1987 when I
was in college and the Blue Eagles won the school’s first UAAP Men’s Basketball
Championship defeating the University of the East in the finals (where the team
rallied from a 20-point deficit to win). A generation of Ateneans had gone by
not knowing hardcourt success.
The last title was in 1976 when
the Ateneo was still in the NCAA. Even then, the team was expected to win the
title but there was a momentary setback to San Beda. The team had to sweat it
out for an additional game before joining the bonfire at the Loyola Center (as
the Blue Eagle Gym was then called).
During the simple celebration,
the Ateneo Men’s Volleyball Team – back-to-back NCAA Men’s Champions just like
the basketball team – was called to the stage. Jimmy Javier, the captain of
that volleyball team was surprised they were called up to the stage and the
only thing he could say at that moment was, “Thank you.” And they went down.
When Ateneo transferred to the
UAAP, the high school team was the power (in most sports). The college teams
didn’t fare well. Until 1987.
There was no stage outside the
Loyola Center; no planned celebration even if we kind of expected to win the
title. It seemed so incredible after years of losing. And somehow, a lot of
people turned up at the school grounds for an impromptu bonfire of twigs,
branches, and newspapers all thrown into this makeshift pyre. One student even
threw in his textbook (much to his regret I was later told). Blue Festin, a
batchmate of mine who was with the Blue Babble Battalion, recalled that a
flatbed truck was used as a makeshift stage. Another batchmate of mine who was
also a cheerleader, Jeff Tan, recalled too that there was this security guard
named Lazo who prevented some alumnus from throwing a car tire into the fire.
Hahahahaha. That was something, I tell you.
The late University Athletics
Director, Fr. Raymond Holscher, S.J. had all the lights around the Loyola
Center switched on. He had what tables and chairs available inside the gym
brought out. There wasn’t enough so we all sat down by the curb or anywhere. And
I do remember that beer was allowed on campus that night.
In 2002, after a 14-year drought
from the back-to-back titles of 1987 and 1988, the bonfire was planned a few
days after; hence, it was more organized and had a feel of a real event. This
became sort of the template for the post-title celebrations.
My second thought was from a much
different and even simpler time. Back when the school called Intramuros (and
later Padre Faura in Manila) home at the turn of the 20th century,
the school celebrated a championship with a torchlight parade that snaked up
from Lawton to around and in the Walled City. When they got to the Ateneo
campus, there was that bonfire in the open grounds.
We were the first and only school
to hold the bonfire. I once heard from a Jesuit priest who has since passed
away that these bonfire celebrations were an off-shoot of the boy scout
campfires that they adopted back in the day.
I can only imagine what it was
like with the small student body singing then.
My third thought was of that
particular Saturday evening to celebrate the school’s first semester champions
and achievers.
I recall after Season 76 when the
five-peat was firmly over, university president Fr. Jett Villarin, S.J. decreed
that there still be a bonfire. My first reaction was, “What? Why? We didn’t
even win!”
But the Jesuit priest, in his
wisdom, explained that it is to be a celebration of the Ateneo athlete and not
just the basketball champions. And what a brilliant idea it was. I thought of
Jimmy Javier and his volleyball team who prior to that celebration, saw no team
outside the basketball team feted for their success.
As I stood and watched last
Saturday night’s proceedings, we all oohed and aahed to hear these swimmers win
anywhere from 36 to 66 medals in their school career. Amazing!
And that is why this celebration
is important at least to us in the community.
A year ago, my family and I were
at the celebration after defeating the heavily favored DLSU Green Archers in
the finals. Although I knew (and wrote about it before the series) that we’d
beat them, my post-game thoughts were the same as this year’s. To be thankful
for moments and times like these.
Ateneo has returned to its
powerhouse status that it once enjoyed in the NCAA. But these are different
days. We don’t get these athletes -- like Jessie Khing Lacuna, those swimmers
on the women’s team, an Alyssa Valdez, and others I cannot mention right now –
all the time. They come once in a generation.
As I left the Ateneo campus
around midnight, I said a short prayer. As I passed by that spot outside Blue
Eagle Gym near its parking lot where that impromptu bonfire was once lit back
in 1987, I stifled a chuckle. I swear that I saw Fr. Ray bring out some drinks
and barking orders for the lights to be opened. I saw my classmates tossing
fallen branches and twigs. And people singing and well, being rowdy.
Just as that October night in
1987, I don’t think I slept much. And the coffee the next morning, tasted
great.
