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| The Ateneo Blue Eagles celebrate after winning the 1987 UAAP Title |
NEXT MAN UP!
A STORY OF REDEMPTION
THE STORY OF THE 1987 - 1988
ATENEO BLUE EAGLES
After the Ateneo Blue Eagles won their third consecutive UAAP Men's Basketball crown in Season 82 via sweep, the Ateneo community were one in saying that this is the greatest Blue Eagles team ever! The past two
decades most of the Ateneo games were packed and tickets are hard to get.
However, if you cannot be there physically you can either watch the games on
television or through streaming. That is why the whole Ateneo community was
able to witness the story of the Ateneo Blue Eagles Band of Brothers and Coach
Tab Baldwin’s battle cry – next man up. After carefully thinking about Coach
Tab Baldwin’s next man up Philosophy it made me remember the team I grew up
watching, that most people nowadays have no recollection whatsoever or didn’t
really know what happened, this the 1987 and 1988 Team that went back to back.
That team overcame incredible odds to be able to bring the first two UAAP
titles of the Ateneo. Before I continue let me first paint a scenario comparing
the circumstances of that team to the players of today’s team. First, the 1987
team – imagine the BEBOB going up against the UP Maroons in Season 81 without
Angelo Kouame in the championship series? Who would have contained Bright Akuhetie? Can Isaac Go do a
good job of defending Akuhetie? Second, the 1988 team – imagine the BEBOB
playing without Thirdy Ravena from the second round onwards to the championship
game. To make matters worse a day before the finals Matt Nieto is sick with a
flu. Do you think we would have stopped the Tigers? Who will match up with Mark
Nonoy and Rhenz Abando and will we be able to contain them? To me the answer to
these two questions is a resounding YES we would have won because I trust in
Coach Tab Baldwin’s next man up system. But that is today, more than thirty
years ago these were the situations that plagued the Ateneo Blue Eagles and for
you to know more about what happened back then then please do continue reading
this blog entitled “ NEXT MAN UP! A STORY OF REDEMPTION. THE STORY OF THE 1987
– 1988 ATENEO BLUE EAGLES.”
THE GLAMOUR LEAGUE
To be able to understand how jubilant the Ateneo community was when the first Men's Basketball title was brought to Katipunan in 1987, we have to go back to where it all started and that is the switch from the NCAA to the UAAP. The NCAA back then was the glamour league of the
Philippines and unlike the UAAP, the supporters of the NCAA teams packed the
venues. School spirit was at a high especially during Ateneo and San Beda games,
which was the rivalry that prevailed in the NCAA since the 1930’s. Unfortunately the one big problem that the
NCAA failed to address back then were the fights and crowd conduct during and
after the games. In the 60’s there was a
season wherein the NCAA was not played because of the unruly crowds, fights and
other stuff that had no place in a basketball game. At the same time, in the
1970’s the students then were more engaging and belligerent owing to the fact
that many students then were part of rallies against the Philippine government. The
Ateneo Blue Eagles were not spared of the violence that has hounded the league
for so long. There was a time when Ateneans did not bring their cars with
Ateneo gate pass stickers because after the games the cars will have broken
windshields and dented sides. As former Blue Eaglet Ogie Narvasa narrated,
after winning game 1 of the NCAA junior’s championship, he and his teammate
Rudy Boy Vargas were chased by San Beda fans after the game. They were lucky
that they escaped that incident unscathed.
In addition, the crowd that watched the games were likely victims of objects being hurled on the court. This is no joke because the objects being hurled on the court and to the opposing team's crowd were hard objects that may cause serios injury to the one watching. This
escalated until the time when the Blue Eagles were out to give the team from
Katipunan their third straight NCAA title in the 1977 – 1978 season.
PLEASE CLICK THE NEXT BLOG ENTRY: THE LAST DANCE: THE 1977 NCAA SEASON
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