(7th of nine parts)
It was around early July of ‘88, my frosh year in college, my main man from the ‘hood, Rene Villanueva, no relation to Enrico, but they play similarly, went to the Big Dome, and watched the UAAP Opening Day.
This author remembers clearly–it was a game between Benjie Paras’ UP versus the late Cris Bolado’s National University Bulldogs.
What flashed through this author’s 17-year-old mind then, was National U’s longest serving and suffering coach, Sonny Paguia, who my paternal uncle Joe knew from back in the day.
My uncle Joe was a trombone player for the NU band during the 1950s, and our mentor/tormentor Jojo ‘Gubas” Castro #17 of the Letran Squires who later became an Adamson Falcon from the early to mid-80s, both had opposing views about the Bustillos basketball program.
What I knew was that NU was the league doormat and had so many records of futility that losing seasons became as regular as the sunsets and sunrises. Their team culture was bone marrow deep, man. Losing was a way of life for these no-bite Bulldogs.
My uncle, who was 19 during NU’s first title run in ‘54, regaled me with bedtime stories about Narciso Bernardo, his era’s top Bulldog. It was his eyewitness narrative.
Then waking up to shooting baskets at sunrise with “Gubas”, he’d tell me that every time the Falcons were gearing up the hardest to meet NU, because they can make their respective career high in points on top of an easy win via blowout and it would be a disgrace to get beaten by the UAAP’s whipping boys.
Paguia, who was at the helm for decades, was an affable, well-loved coach. Likable to some extent, and little did the basketball-crazy public know that the old-timer was Coach Joe Lipa’s mentor.
So, by the time the mid-90s rolled by, Coach Joe Lipa asked one of his State U proteges, Coach Jojo Villa to handle the NU Bulldogs program, which had a gangling center from Pangasinan named Danny Ildefonso and brought along his recruit from the same province, who turned out to be swingman/gunner Lordy Tugade.
The Bulldogs found themselves in unfamiliar territory which led to their first Final Four appearance in the 90s.
The Bustillos revival of ‘97 catalyzed future NU mentors who had the same Joe Lipa DNA, brother act of Coaches Manny and Ricky Dandan made the Bulldogs a formidable contender which years later led eventually to having Coach Eric Altamirano guiding them to the UAAP mountain top.
It was exactly 60 years when my Uncle Joe mercilessly blew his trombone for Ciso Bernardo and his triumphant Bulldog pack of ‘54. “Ang Tatlong Anak ng Pongalangala”, turned it around for what was once known as the doormat of the UAAP.
From the doldrums, there was no way to go but UP.
(To be continued)
(Sonny “Peter” Regalado Lopez, is currently a player development coach, marketing communications consultant, and book author. He collaborated with coach Joe Lipa in publishing Basketball 101, a book that aims to coach the coaches and provide reference material for Physical Education teachers in the K to 12 curricula. The 53-year-old Lopez is a San Beda College, Manila, BSC Marketing Management graduate, who is currently working on publishing the memoirs of great coaches Joe Lipa, SJLC’s Larry Albano, and San Beda’s, late Edmundo ‘Ato’ Badolato, all in coffee table book format.)