La Salle-Ateneo: a history

No matter the outcome of the games, people talk about them. And the jokes about student and alumni reactions are so common, they’re practically reversible. The same things one school says about the other are equally applicable. When one school wins a game, they issue traffic warnings not to pass near the other campus, to avoid a supposed flood of tears.

This is the stuff the rivalry between De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University is made of. It has become a part of Philippine sports culture, so much so that their annual clashes fill up Araneta Coliseum. Their battles spill over into the boardrooms and other playing fields of the country. It is a badge of honor for one side to have defeated the other in anything, it seems.

But when did this classic college rivalry truly begin?

"From what The STAR has gathered, some of the older alumni recall that, in the 1950’s, an NCAA cheering event transformed into taunting and, eventually, some violence between students of both schools. Since then, it gradually evolved into emotional warfare.

"The earliest memory I have is when I was seven or eight years old," says Tito Panlilio, an Ateneo alumnus who graduated in 1969. "My father used to take us to the NCAA games. This was the time of (Kurt) Bachmann for La Salle and Ed Ocampo for us. And it was an Ateneo-La Salle championship game."

"Intense rivalry. The tension has always been there," says former Green Archer and now Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, who was also a tennis player until he graduated in 1968. "It’s a matter of pride. The problem is, whether you’re young or old, if you’re from La Salle or Ateneo, it’s the spirit that is willing, the will to win." "In my first year, 1974, we played against La Salle for the NCAA championship," remembers Basketball Association of the Philippines director Fritz Gaston, who graduated from the Loyola campus in 1978. "The difference was Lim Eng Beng. He was unstoppable. Now, we’re thirty years older, things are different," he laughs.

"My earliest memories were watching Chito Afable, Ricky Palou, some of the players I play with today," recalls Jim Tioseco, a Blue Eagle who graduated in 1976, and whose daughter, Cassie, now plays for Ateneo’s women’s team. "We would sneak into the dug-out in Loyola Center (now called Blue Eagle gym), and just admire them."

In 1977, because of escalating violence in the NCAA, Ateneo left to join the younger UAAP. It would be almost a decade before De La Salle would reunite them there, and stoke the flames of their rivalry anew.

"I wasn’t able to play against Ateneo," rues Boy Manguera. "I played in ’78, ’79 and ’80."

"My earliest memory with Ateneo was in 1986," reveals De La Salle coach Franz Pumaren, who has coached the Green Archers to five UAAP titles. "I was part of the very first UAAP team."

"I recall that they had some fights and even once had a closed-door championship game," recalls Alaska Aces assistant coach Jojo Lastimosa, who played with Philippine team head coach Chot Reyes on a couple of Ateneo teams in the early 1980’s. "Those were my earliest memories."

The animosity was amplified by the fact that Ateneo was in Quezon City and La Salle was in Manila, and the players hardly ever saw each other. Today’s players know how important the rivalry is to their schools, but no longer have the same violent outbursts. For one, many of them play (sometimes on the same team) in the Philippine Basketball League, and treat it more professionally. Some of them move in the same social circles. A few are even members of the same barkada, something that was an unspeakable offense back in the day.

"I would bet my last peso when I was in school," reveals Puentevella. "I would risk it, because I knew I would give my best."

"I remember every time we would play Ateneo, the coliseum would be jampacked," retired PBA player Aldo Perez remembers vividly. "All the alumni, the students would be there, cheering for us."

In spite of their differences over the years, many of them cherish their bittersweet memories of the golden age of Philippine basketball, when the game seemed purer, and more intense, when money was never an issue, but pride was worth more than anything.

"Of course, it was when I was picked to be an NCAA All-Star player twice," Panlilio admits.

"It’s got to be the championship," Tioseco declares. "That was against San Beda in 1976. I’m glad I was part of it."

"This is it," Manguera says, referring to the Ultimate Showdown played at the Araneta Coliseum a week before the UAAP opening. "And I hope they do this again, so we can help more beneficiaries."

"I cannot pinpoint one," explains Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines president Chito Narvasa, a member of Ateneo batch 1974 who played on the Philippine team. "Everything was very, very special to me."

So, after all these years, both sides have found something to agree on.