THE BLUE BABBLE BATTALION

This iconic picture has the 1986 BBB going vintage

Rick Olivares wrote extensively about the Blue Babble Battalion from its beginnings up until the current crops of cheerleaders and cheer dancers in his one of a kind article “Harnessing the Thunder.” He mentioned in his blog that the Ateneo cheerleaders were the “Prince of Personality!” In the 30's and all the way to the 70's the most popular student leaders were Cheerleaders. Former Senator Raul Manglapus was the one who led the cheers in the 30's, Former Vice-President Tito Guingona is another one who led the cheers in the 40's while in the 60's Senator Dick Gordon is another one of those great student leaders that led the Ateneo cheers.  In the 1980s, the Prince of Personality were mostly the funniest people you can see on campus and a lot of them became cheerleaders. When the Blue Eagles were, in the NCAA, the Ateneo crowd was there but in the UAAP; it took some time before the community eventually went to the Rizal Memorial Coliseum to watch the games.  In order for that to happen the Blue Babble taught the Ateneo cheers in PE classes and invited the new college students to watch the games. As a freshman back in 1987, many upperclassmen who I knew then were waiting for me to join the tryouts at the Ateneo cafeteria. I am just happy I did not disappoint my seniors and was accepted to what we call the elite Blue Babble Battalion. Since we were only fifteen back then, we needed people to be on the stands to cheer so we started a group that will fill the coliseum every game to cheer their hearts out and they were called the Blue Hecklers. Well the Blue Hecklers were there to cheer and if possible heckle the other team’s players. Most of the Blue Hecklers back then were composed of loyal supporters of the Blue and White who were there to witness their batch win the Juniors title the past four years plus a few other recruits. Therefore, when the Blue Babble Battalion was complete, the Babble President Rey Guarin put together the team that included Randy Soriano, Arnie Bohol, Glenn Pantig, Ago Apilado, Jeffrey Tan, Jed Valenzuela, Blue Festin, Joel Garma, Zaldy Tolentino, Rene Guarin, Neil Bernardo, Jong Castaneda and yours truly. It was a group that people would listen and follow because fun was an important element on how we invited people to the games and how we made people cheer. During the games of the 1987 season, Ateneans either cheered or laughed for there were many sideshows happening in between games.

 

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One of the highlights of that 1987 season was when we went down the hard court during the Ateneo – UP halftime game with our shades on that elicited a loud boo from the seven other member schools watching. To make matters worse we lost that game. The Blue Babble made sure there was a crowd every game and there were cheerleaders leading the cheers during halftime because that time Ateneo was the only school that had cheerleaders.  The Blue Babble Band that time had only one bass drum with former Eaglet Gerry Sison pounding away, two snare drums and a saxophone which was played by Jo Avila. There was never a dull moment when there were games especially when the crowd is thin we would create some antics with Arnie Bohol, Glenn Pantig, Jeff Tan and me at the helm. Our silent cheer, Christmas cheer and DLRT cheers became staples of every game. The hecklers always had a way with the other team’s players. That was why when the Ateneo – UE championship game happened, the hecklers helped out in leading the cheers also because so many people turned up.  During halftime, Senator Raul Manglapus joined the cheerleaders in cheering the Fabilioh that got the crowd going. Sen. Manglapus was joined by former cheerleaders, former Olongapo Mayor and now Senator Dick Gordon and former Congressman Hermie Aquino. The energy of that halftime show transferred to the crowd that cheered “Get that ball” and “One Big Fight” to decibel levels never heard of.  When you ask anyone from the 1987 team one of the reasons the team won, they will say the crowd energized them to fight back. 

Blue Eagle the KING!
from the BBB FB Page

During the 1988 season the De La Salle followed suit by having cheerleaders of their own. They were saying that it was them that came out first with female cheerleaders. That distinction still goes to Ateneo that fielded female cheerleaders in the 1986 Ateneo vs La Salle game when DLSU was not event fielding male cheerleaders. A former member of the Ateneo High School Blue Babble who transferred to La Salle helped start their Pep squad. That was why we had some laughs back when when their cheerleaders were moving like Eagles. It was the same choreography with ateneo cheers. Eventually they fixed it. One thing that made the cheering of both schools exciting were the side shows that go with the usual halftime cheers. During the first round of the Ateneo vs La Salle game, the Blue Babble Battalion came out with a grade 4 student as the centerpiece of their on court performance. Kyle Baizas has three brothers in college and although he was in grade 4 that time he already knew the Ateneo cheers which was quite unheard off back then. Kyle performed and before he went out of the court he was instructed to come out with an arrow and raise it up. Everyone in the coliseum was clapping until he broke the arrow that elicited negative remarks from the green side of the coliseum

In the second round Ateneo vs La Salle game, the Blue Babble Battalion had another epic performance that was waiting to happen. During that halftime presentation, My batchmate Jong Castaneda, who was wearing a bright gren jacket,  went in alone to the middle of the court, faced the DLSU faithfuls and was raising his fist to the DLSU crowd. After getting cheers from the DLSU crowd Jong made a slight bow and then went out. After that scene, the Ateneo band hit the drums with the traditional eight beat and the Blue Babble went in wearing their white pants and white shirts and no Blue Babble Jackets. Then when they were all in position and waiting to start, Jong came in once again but now he was holding all the jackets of the Blue Babble cheerleaders and then positioned himself in front of them and one by one gave the jackets to the Ateneo cheerleaders who were lining up to get their jackets. When that happened the Ateneo crowd went wild in laughter. Then the Blue Babble went on to do their usual cheers and after cheering the last cheer, the Blue Eagle Spelling. Jong went back in and as the Blue Babble was about to exit he approached them one by one and wiped their sweaty faces with the towel he was holding. After wiping all the cheerleaders faces he then faced the Ateneo crowd took off his green jacket, hurled it to the ground and stomped on it. That performance was one of a kind. In the finals, the Blue Babble went on with their usual cheers, invited former movie star Robert Arevalo and former RPN 9 news reporter David Nye and led the Ateneo cheers once again. No more performance. An eagle was once again brought inside the coliseum to lift up the spirits of the Ateneo gallery.  The Blue Babble Battalion once again led the cheers and stymied the predominant La Salle crowd that filled up 60-70% of the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. But like what we always say, we were always outnumbered but never out cheered. The 1980’s cheering only had a couple of instruments and loud cheers of Fabilioh, chants of Ateneo Go and Fight, endless shouts of Get that ball when the opponents are on the offense and one big fight when we score. Those were fun times considering the fact that the Ateneo has finally brought the crowds back to the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. That is definitely the Ateneo way.

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