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For the next batch of inductees, perhaps these five Filipino sporting legends will make the cut for the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.
The Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee recently announced the latest batch of Filipino sports figures to be enshrined into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.
The seven, all athletes, are Ramon Fernandez (basketball), Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco Jr. (boxing), Adeline Dumapong-Ancheta (para-powerlifting), Beatriz Lucero-Lhuillier (gymnastics/taekwondo), Cecil Mamiit (tennis), Isidro Del Prado (athletics) and Eduardo Alvir Pacheco (football/basketball).
A committee headed by PSC Chairman Patrick Gregorio and POC president Bambol Tolentino and composed of veteran sports journalists selected the seven from a list of 75 nominees. This latest batch will be enshrined next month, and will bring the total of Filipino athletes in the Hall to 54.
Only retired players, coaches and trainers from 1924 to 2014 are eligible for nomination, but Gregorio said he will push for amendments to the selection process to allow sports patrons and media to be nominated.
While all members are deserving, there are some Filipino sports figures whose names aren’t enshrined yet, even though a quick look at their list of achievements suggests they deserve to be there.
We don’t know if the following names have ever been nominated and if they have, why they have never made the final cut. But here are five we hope will be included in the next batch to be enshrined.
Efren Reyes (billiards)
It’s genuinely shocking that “Bata” hasn’t been inducted yet. It’s likely due to the “needs to be retired” rule, but Reyes hasn’t been playing competitively for the past couple of years. He now only makes token appearances at billiards events both here and abroad, and while he did compete in last year’s Philippine Open, that was more of a ceremonial appearance for the sponsors.
This is the only plausible reason why Reyes didn’t make the final cut for this latest batch, as a full list of his achievements would take up a whole page. What’s equally shocking is that billiards, the one sport that rivals basketball in popularity and has produced world-class talent, still doesn’t have a representative in the Hall. If not Bata, then surely Amang Parica deserves a nod.
John Baylon (judo)
Baylon was the undisputed king of judo in Southeast Asia, winning nine straight gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games beginning in 1991. Some inductees have won less than half of that, so it stands to reason that Baylon is deserving.
Baylon was also a two-time Olympian. Such was his aura that after his final SEA Games appearance in 2011, which unfortunately ended in a loss, judokas from other countries all lined up to shake his hand and have their photo taken with him.
Jaime Sebastian (weightlifting)
For over a decade, Sebastian lorded it over the weightlifting competition heavyweight division in the SEA Games, so much so that he was dubbed “Southeast Asia’s Strongest Man”. Granted, a lifter could win as many as three golds per division back then (as opposed to just one nowadays), but still, a 21-gold medal haul over seven SEAGs is mighty impressive.
Sebastian never equaled the accomplishments of the only weightlifter in the Hall – Salvador Del Rosario, who won a gold in the World Championships and a silver in the Asian Games – but similar to Baylon’s case, the sheer volume of his SEAG golds leaves other inductees’ medal count in the dust.
Billy Wilson (swimming)
Who’s the last Filipino swimmer to win a gold medal at the Asian Games? That would be Wilson, who bagged the gold in the men’s 200m freestyle in New Delhi in 1982. He also won a silver and a bronze in the same Asiad, also the last time a Filipino swimmer won three medals in the quadrennial meet.
Wilson also won nine SEA Games golds, to go along with two bronzes, making him one of the most decorated Filipino swimmers of all time. And yet, he’s still waiting for his Hall of Fame call-up.
Baby Dalupan (basketball)
Since coaches are eligible, then surely the great Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan is worthy of a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Nicknamed “The Maestro”, Dalupan was already a proven winner by the time he began coaching the Crispa Redmanizers in the PBA’s inaugural year in 1975. He would go on to win 15 PBA titles, and although that number has long been surpassed by Tim Cone, it must be noted that Dalupan was already 52 when the PBA opened.
By then, though, he had already amassed a staggering amount of titles: 12 UAAP championships, two NCAA championships, and 20 other titles from various leagues like the MICAA, National Seniors and National Open. His last championship, fittingly, was against Cone, when he led Purefoods to its first PBA title in 1990 in dramatic fashion: the Hotdogs were down 0-2 in their best-of-five series.
What about you? Who do you think should be the next inductees into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame?
Banner images from Matchroom Pool.