Ultimate showdown relives fabled Ateneo-La Salle feud

The best basketball players of Ateneo and La Salle — from the NCAA days in the 60s up to the UAAP days in the late 70s and early 80s — relive their old, fierce rivalry in a rare game dubbed the FilOil-Flying V Ultimate Showdown: An Ateneo-De La Salle Basketball Classic.

And it’s for a cause.

Conceptualized by FilOil-Flying V and La Salle Batch ’84 and Ateneo Batch ’82 in cooperation with Pure Play Sports Management, the one-day event is set July 2 at the Araneta Coliseum and will be televised live on Studio 23, television giant ABS-CBN 2‘s UHL channel.

"I expect it to be one memorable game and we’re very excited about it," said Dave Dualan, chief marketing officer of major sponsor FilOil and Flying V, in yesterday’s launching of the event at the Kublai Restaurant on Katipunan Road.

Memories will be provided by the "legends" such as Chito Afable, Joy Carpio, Steve Watson, Joy Cleofas, and Ricky Palou, who will spearhead the Ateneo squad while Lim Eng Beng, Kenneth Yap, Alex Marquez, Franz Pumaren, Jong Uichico and Tonichi Yturri will banner the La Salle side in the 2 p.m. opener.

The Archers will be coached by Alaska Milk team manager Joaqui Trillo while Chito Narvasa, president of the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines, will handle the Eagles.

The All-Stars match, featuring the "younger bunch" that includes Ateneo’s Danny Francisco, Jayvee Gayoso, Larry Fonacier, Paolo Bugia and Eric Reyes and La Salle’s Mac Cardona, John Cardel, Jason Webb, Dindo Pumaren and Dwight Lago, will be played at 4 p.m.

Virgil Villavicencio will call the shots for the Archers All Stars while Fritz Gaston, who last played for the Katipunan-based school’s last NCAA team in 1978, will coach the Eagles All Stars.

Also present in the press conference were Studio 23’s Peter Musngi, Howie Calleja of La Salle-Greenhills Batch ’84, Jimmy Hofilena of Ateneo College Batch ’82 and organizing Pure Play Sports Management, Inc.’s Anthony Suntay.

Aside from the much-anticipated pair of games, side events like the two-ball shootout featuring 60’s and 70’s collegiate superstars Jimmy Alabanza and Felix Flores of Ateneo against Kurt Bachmann and Ramoncito Campos of La Salle plus performances by the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion and the La Salle Pep Squad.

Proceeds of the event, which is also sponsored by Accel, Millenium Plans, Bank of Commerce and backed by Gerry’s Grill, Kublai’s, Inihaw Circle, Sunbolt, and IO KTV, will go to the athletic scholarships of both schools.