DIOSDADO 'Dadi Kid' Cudia, a PBA pioneer who worked in the support staff of Toyota and later Barangay Ginebra for over two decades, died early Saturday morning of a heart attack in his home in Cabangbangan, Apalit, Pampanga.
He was 74.
Cudia was an original member of the Toyota team that won nine PBA championships until its disbandment in 1984, serving as a ball boy and towel boy for a fabled team led by legends Robert Jaworski and Mon Fernandez.


Dadi Kid later joined the staff of Jaworski when the Big J moved to Ginebra, first as player and later as playing-coach. He was a part of five more champion teams, seeing the transition from Jawo's scrappy side of the late eighties led by Rudy Distrito and Chito Loyzaga to the Marlou Aquino-Bal David era of the nineties.
He last played the role of towel boy during the memorable Toyota-Crispa reunion game played in 2003 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Off the court, Cudia was also a beloved ka-barangay at San Vicente in Apalit, which he served as barangay captain in the nineties and as a kagawad for multiple terms until the time of his death.
On Friday, Cudia, mic in hand, was still part of the barangay staff going around the neighborhood asking people to stay at home and remain on guard against Covid-19, according to Apalit spokesman and SB secretary Glenn Danting.

Cudia is survived by children Melody and Manuel Bernarte, Jackyline, Juan Carlos, Erlinda, Aurora, Diosdado Nino and Rona, Marissa and Renato Flores, Irene and Alvin Canlas, and Aldwin and Lisa; and grandchildren Jubilee, Justin, Lewis, Lourd, Patrisha, Renissa, Rene, Renato, Renier, Jamella, Karla, Kelvin, Kenneth, Louis and Gian.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph