Coach Tommy

“Anywhere I go, I’m not known as a golfer. I’m known as Coach Tommy, Coach Tommy. So it will always be a sentimental part of me.”

This is how multi-awarded golfer Tommy Manotoc is known to people, even decades after his PBA coaching days ended. One of the men responsible for helping build the foundation for the league 40 years ago, Manotoc, now also the officer in charge of membership at Alabang Country Club, has a treasure chest of memories he recently opened to this writer.

Tommy, now 65, had two older brothers who also played basketball for De La Salle and the Philippine team. Tommy was a center in grade school, forward in high school and was transformed by legendary coach Tito Eduque into a tall point guard in college. And even though golf was always his first love, basketball was an ardent suitor. Even in high school, he and his classmate, basketball analyst and PBA team manager Andy Jao would walk to MICAA games at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum from school and break down the games into their finer points. Tommy always pretended he was coaching both teams, anticipating what each coach would do.

“It was always our national sport, our passion, probably not as much as today because economics came in,” he elaborates. “ But every street corner, I mean you would see a basketball court. Our own tennis court had a basketball goal on the side. It was a sport that would get a few people together and have a nice time.”

Because his company sold cotton to two founding PBA teams, Manotoc was always around the MICAA and involved in the founding of the PBA. Eventually, he was asked to coach Universal Textiles, or U-tex. In an effort to break the stranglehold of Crispa and Toyota on the finals, he became one of the first coaches to emphasize fitness and defense, back in an era when players still smoked and didn’t take training that seriously.

“I thought that, for my team to be competitive, we could not get, you know, Crispa and Toyota had all these great players. We were U-tex, we were in the bottom of the league,” he explains. “So the only way we could do it is through defense, but before defense comes physical conditioning, which was not present at the time. It was zero. It was zero.”

Though the players balked at the extra work, Manotoc himself set the example, saying that if he could outrun them they should be ashamed of themselves. The innovative ploy worked. After losing to Crispa in the 1977 Open Conference, the Wranglers got their revenge the following year, sweeping the Redmanizers, 3-0, for their first title. In the 1980 Open Conference, U-tex went all the way to the deciding fifth game against Toyota, making them the only team to beat both league titans in the finals. In that series, Manotoc gained nationwide infamy for resting his imports in the middle of the championship, quoting a Chinese proverb “one step backward, two steps forward,” which the media misinterpreted as tanking the game.

“I almost lost my license because of that,” Tommy laughs. “I almost got kicked out of the PBA. But it was three out of five with Toyota, I remember very well, and we were not deep, you know, and my imports were playing 40 minutes a game. So it was the fourth game and we were up, 2-1. I doubted if we were gonna win the game, and our guys were getting tired. So I said I’m honestly thinking of pulling them out if we cannot get it down to a figure which I think we can still win.”

Manotoc did what was considered the unthinkable, resting his reinforcements Glen McDonald and Aaron James. He became a villain of Philippine basketball, albeit temporarily.

“Of course, the press didn’t like it that much. I think the league didn’t like it that much. I was summoned by (PBA commissioner) Leo Prieto. I explained that I’m trying to win the championship,” he recalls, looking at the big picture back then. “You know that day, the next night, the other night, I was the worst guy in town. Now, I’m the most popular guy in town. That’s life. Sometimes, you have to make hard decisions. I had to take that decision from a coaching point of view, because that was my job then as a coach.”

Manotoc was eventually asked to take over Crispa when Baby Dalupan stepped down as head coach. In 1983, the Redmanizers went on a tear. First, they swept Gilbey’s Gin in the All-Filipino. Next, they stopped emerging league power Great Taste Coffee in the Reinforced Conference, going all the way to five games. Lastly, the two teams met again in the Open Conference, where Crispa swept their upstart opponents in three games. They were now the first team – and to date the only team – in PBA history to have won two Grand Slams.

But all the intense, constant pressure started to get to Tommy, and he eventually returned to his first love, the more peaceful game of golf.

“It takes a lot to coach PBA,” Tommy elaborates. “People don’t realize the pain, the suffering, the torture that you go to practice every day, and you’re working more than nine months of the year. So after a few years, I really wanted a break.”

Since then, Tommy Manotoc has fulfilled many of the dreams of his youth, perennially making the Philippine team and competing for flag and country in some of the most prestigious tournaments abroad. But to those of us who remember and acknowledge his deeds in the PBA and are celebrating 40 years of its excellence, he will always be the beloved Coach Tommy.