DE LA SALLE vs. Ateneo in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) finals?
Nothing could be more exciting than another fight to the death between these avowed mortal rivals, each out to annihilate the other for that prized silverware, the king’s crown.
Such an electrifying possibility no longer seems remote from where I sit. The Green Archers lead the Final Four cast with a near spotless record of 13 wins and one loss, and the Blue Eagles are hot on their heels in second, propelled by six straight wins on Tab Baldwin’s prodding after some early season struggles.
College basketball lore has enshrined the memory of the first title tussle between these storied school teams and their fans. I have read the publisher’s draft of the definitive soon-to-be published book on Philippine basketball, Years of Glory, written by two old friends—I call them “grizzled” in the time-honored sports adjective for veterans—Noel Albano and Iggy Dee, and learned that the first blood in this rivalry was drawn in the evening of September 23, 1939.
It was for the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. Fans got something much more, a championship for the ages. “Ateneo was titan, having gained five crowns overall—and made more trips to the title playoffs than any quintet since 1924,” wrote Albano and Dee. “La Salle was still hustling for glory, one of only two founding members still without silverware…”
With permission from the two, I share the three paragraphs worth relishing of that encounter.
“Ten thousand fans jammed the stadium. The battle was fierce, 8-all after one quarter, 14-all at the half. At the end of the third, it was 18-16, La Salle. Then came the decisive stretch. Al Ray, who led all scorers with 10 points, and Adrian Manzano, who hit six, came through and put the Green Archers on top by five, 23-18.
“La Salle held on desperately to its five-point lead by freezing the ball,” wrote the Tribune, “but the Eagles forced them to shoot by man-to-man guarding.”
Ateneo’s poor shooting night saw Jones, one of its reliable shooters, miss two charities, but Cortes tapped in the miss to cut the gap, 23-20. At this precise moment, the “Blue stand yelled for blood, but the La Sallites were out to win at all cost.” Eustacio Barros and Ray came through with one basket each and felled Ateneo at last, 27-23.
“The shock waves of this game would ripple through the ethereal tunnels of time and space all the way to the present. The players and coaches had changed countless times since but not the rivalry’s hardening animosities. Blue vs. Green seemed to have an unnamed force of its own, always a fight to the death regardless of the prize at stake. Each team simply hated to lose to the other.”
While we await the crucial games in the Final Four to unfold, I can’t wait to be in the coliseum to hear that “blood-curdling yell,” that scream for blood, between Ateneo and La Salle partisans.
I purposely used the word “partisan”. In sports, unlike in politics, one cannot be a fence-sitter and wait to see where the tide of battle is turning. You have to wear your color on your lapel from the first to the last whistle. You can jump in joy, weep in pain, but you cannot sit still. A game in sports is the purest contest in life one could ever wish to see.
But first, the two rivals must take care of the immediate business.
Each owns a twice-to-beat advantage, huge in this phase of the tournament. But while the streaking Green Archers are the hands-down picks over the Adamson Falcons in the first pairing, the Blue Eagles face a formidable roadblock named the Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws.
“We don’t think we have the advantage,” said Baldwin’s top assistant on the bench, Sandy Arespacochaga, moments after clinching Ateneo’s sixth straight win by shooting down the Falcons.
Memories of the devastating setback to the Tams that ousted the Blue Eagles from the title race last season still hovers like a dark cloud over Ateneo. Far Eastern went on to win the championship by rolling back the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers in a three-game series.
One thing going solidly for Ateneo is that it has not lost to FEU in two games this season, one even ending in a 74-59 blowout. It would be a trap, Sandy says, however, if Ateneo wades into the matchup thinking it could easily duplicate this, even if it owns a delicate psychological edge.
“They [Tamaraws] are a tough team, and we have to prepare for them,” he says. The Blue Eagles’ goal now is to stay focused, he says, because the Tams would not walk gently into that good night, to use a poet’s phrase.
I have looked into my crystal ball. I can make out the names of the two protagonists: it will be a La Salle-Ateneo matchup.