[Fourth of a five-part Olympic series]
BELIEVE it or not, the Philippines was a fixture in Olympic basketball before.
Those, however, were still in the early years of the sport when the Pinoys were dominating the Asian level to be in the same breath as the United States.
And as expected for a basketball-crazy nation, it’s only expected that basketball players were tapped to carry the Philippine flag in the Parade of Nations in the past.
READ All the boxers who served as Philippine flagbearers
Actually, it has happened in three previous Olympic opening ceremonies.
Cebuano cager Francisco Vestil got the honors in London 1948.
The Philippine team, which also included his University of Santo Tomas teammates Fely and Gabby Fajardo and Ramon Campos Jr., as well as Lauro Mumar, Manuel Araneta, Primitivo Martinez, Eduardo Fulgencio, Andres dela Cruz and Eduardo Decena, was coached by Dionisio Calvo and finished at 12th place.
Four years later, Campos was selected to be the flagbearer in Helsinki 1952.
Fely Fajardo, the team captain in London, was now the head coach of the team with Campos being the lone holdover.
Part of that RP team included other greats in Carlos Loyzaga and Tony Genato, together with team captain Pocholo Martinez, Florentino Bautista, Paeng Hechanova, Jose Gochangco, Eduardo Lim, Ponciano Saldana, Meliton Santos, Antonio Tantay, and Mariano Tolentino. The team breezed through the qualification but did not advance past the main round for a ninth place finish.
Jimmy Mariano was the last basketball player to hold the flag in the Olympics back in Munich 1972.
With Ed Ocampo serving as the team captain, the Philippine team had a stacked lineup which featured William "Bogs" Adornado, Danny Florencio, Freddie Webb, Manny Paner, Yoyong Martirez, Rogelio "Tembong" Melencio, Joy Cleofas, Jun Papa, Marte Samson, and Narciso Bernardo and was coached by Ignacio "Ning" Ramos.
The Filipinos, though, lost six of its seven games in pool play, beat Egypt via forfeit in the semifinal round, and escaped Japan in the battle for 13th place.
Can Gilas get there?
To date, it was the last time that the Philippines sent a team in the Olympics.
It may have been a while since the Pinoys played Olympic ball, but one can pray that Gilas Pilipinas can reach that level and represent our country in the quadrennial games sooner rather than later.
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