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    Longtime voice of the PBA Dick Ildefonso signs off at 86

    Colleagues pay tribute to pioneering PBA broadcaster
    Nov 10, 2022
    dick ildefonso

    THE remaining half of the duo credited for bringing life to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) games on television in the 70s has also signed off.

    Dick Ildefonso passed away on Thursday after falling ill earlier this year.

    He was 86.

    [READ: Pioneer sportscaster Emy Arcilla dies at age 70]

    Together with his late broadcast partner Emy Arcilla, Ildefonso was the calm and cool voice who did the PBA broadcast from the mid-70s to the early 80s.

    He and Arcilla, who passed away in 2016, did most of the PBA games during its early years when the heated Crispa-Toyota rivalry served as the lifeblood of the league.

    Ildefonso stayed with the league until 1981 before Vintage Enterprises took over the television coverage of the league the year later and opted to bring in a new batch of anchors and commentators.

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      Yet, many of those who worked with Vintage before looked up to him for his great work ethic and the way he carries himself in front of the camera.

      “Together with the late Emy Arcilla, they were the voices of the early years of the PBA, and those fierce Crispa-Toyota battles,” wrote veteran broadcaster Sev Sarmenta on his Facebook page.

      “Sir Dick was always clear and calm in his delivery even in the heat of all those great games,” added Sarmenta, who had the privilege of working with Ildefonso during the 1999 Southeast Asian Games in Brunei, and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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      Former PBA play-by-play anchor and now president of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) Ed Picson, also recalled Ildefonso with fondness.

      “Aside from being a fellow broadcaster, he was also a golf mate,” said Picson, noting Ildefonso was a former president of the KGB (Kapisanan ng Mga Golfers sa Broadcast).

      Another longtime sportscaster, Noel Zarate, referred to Ildefonso as his ‘first ever sportscasting idol and influence.’

      “His descriptive and seemingly effortless style of play-by-play became the standard which budding sports broadcasters attempted to emulate,” said Zarate.

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      Prior to the PBA, Ildefonso also called the games in the defunct MICAA (Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association).

      He also did the television coverage of the UAAP in the mid-80s until the early 90s when he worked with Silverstar.

      Curiously, he was reunited with Arcilla in 2003 when they did the coverage of the Crispa-Toyota reunion game.

      Ildefonso last appeared in public when he guested in the podcast ‘An Eternity of Basketball’ last year hosted by Zarate, Sid Ventura, and Atty. Charlie Cuna.

      Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph

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