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Philippines, 03 Apr 2026 |
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BABY DALUPAN: THE WINNINGEST COACH By Eddie Alinea PhilBoxing.com Wed, 24 Aug 2016  Move over, Phil Jackson, the NBA's winningest coach, and John Wooden, his counterpart in the U.S. NCAA. You, too, Casey Sengel and Joe McCarthy, both of the Major League Baseball, as well as Chuck Noll in the Super Bowl. This is because Filipino coaching "Maestro" Virgilio "Baby" Dalupan had, in his almost four decades of directing plays on the bench, shamed all you gentlemen's title triumphs combined. Jackson's 11 title conquests while mentoring the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers was eclipsed by Dalupan's 15 in handling the legendary Crispa Redmanizers (9), Great Taste Coffee (5) and Purefoods (1) in the Philippine Basketball Association, the country and Asia's first professional league. Wooden, America's greatest collegiate coach had won a total 10 NCAA Division I crowns for the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), 12 short Dalupan's 20, a dozen with then his family-owned University of the East in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), two with his alma mater Ateneo de Manila University. Born in Malabon, a town then part of Rizal Province, to UE founder Francisco Dalupan and Lorenza Adam, Baby team captain of the Ateneo soccer team and member of the the Jesuit school's basketball and track and field squads in his playing days, guided, too, the Red Warriors to six National Intercollegiate crowns. Count the 16, the Babe won in the amateur commercial league -- the Metropolitan Open, Manila Industrial Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA) Open and All-Filipino, National Seniors, National Open, President's Cup, Tournament of Champions, National Invitational and Palarong Pilipino -- plus another title triumph in the inernational arena (Singapore Sports Festival or Pesta Sukan) brought Dalupan's collection of championship trophies to a total 52. That's 13 more than the the 39 combined ring collections of Jackson, Wooden, Stengel and McCarthy, who have a combined 14 Major League Baseball World Series diadems, and Noll's four in Super Bowl. Fellow coaches attribute Dalupan's string of successes not only to his court savvy, but, more importantly, to sharp eyes to spot young, raw and untested talents and uncanny knack for developing them. The unwavering support extended him by kumpadre Danny Floro, a scion of the family that owned Crispa who will be his long-time partner, also contributed to a large extent in Baby's quest for glory and fame in the sport he and his countrymen love most. Consider such names as Pilo Pumaren and Constancio Ortiz Jr., the two guys responsible for winning his first Intercollegiate title in the very first year of his assumption as the Red Warriors' coach in 1955 and a back-to-back UAAP crowns two years later. Then came a bevy of fresh faces -- Roehl Nadurata, Roberto Flores, Jimmy Mariano, Robert Jaworski, Rudy Soriano, Rudolf Kutch, Virgilio Abarrientos, Danny Pecache, Epoy Alcantara, Johnny Revilla, Ernesto de Leon and Rey Franco were Baby's main men in UE's long and productive 11-year, 12-championship from 1957 to 1972, including an uninterrupted streak of seven straight from 1967. They were the products of Dalupan's tutoring, who upon graduating to the commercial leagues were to grace, too, the Redmanizers' lineup, which, at one time or another, reinforced by other collegiate standuouts as Bogs Adornado, Atoy Co, Philip Cezar, Freddie Hubalde, Virgilio del Cruz, Danilo Florencio, Narciso Bernardo, Manny Jocson, Jun Papa and Domingo Celis and with Floro as godfather, ruled every amateur championhip that was to be won from 1970 until the birth of the PBA in 1975. Adornado, Co, Cezar, Hubalde, Revilla, Franco and Dela Cruz kept wearing their Redmanizers uniforms in Crispa's initial try in the pro-rank where they were joined by provincial recruits Abet Guidaben and Bernie Fabiosa, winning the Third conference called the Philippine Cup after losing twice to the Jaworski-powered Toyota Comets in the First Conference and, import-laden Second Conference. That initial title conquest signalled Crispa's domination of the pro-league's first decade of existence emerging champion 12 moire times, nine courtesy of Dalupan, including the league's first Grandslam in 1976 and a string of six straight making the Redmanizers the title the "Team of the 70s". The following 12-year span, in fact, saw how Dalupan's nurturing hands had impacted on his former pupils with Adornado, Jaworski, Co, Cezar, Hubale and Guidaben winning at least a MVP award each from 1975 to 1987. Adornado became the first player to be accorded the honors three times in 1975, 1976 and 1981, the last while donning the Univeral Texiles uniform, while Guidaben earning the distinction twice in 1983 and 1987. Hubalde (1977), Jaworski (with Toyota in 1978), Co (1979) and Cezar (1980) had one MVP each. Three other pros -- Alvin Patrimonio, Allan Caidic and Ricardo Brown -- who, at one time or another, played, too, under Baby, had, likewise, won the MVP honors with the now Hotshots team manager becoming the only second player to earn the coveted award four times (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997). Caidic (1990 with Presto) ) and Brown (1985 with Great Taste) were both maintays of the Consolidated Foods franchise Dalupan mentored to five championships after severing his with Floro from 1984 to 1987. Baby, married to Lourdes (Nenang) Gaston, with whom he had eight children, passed away Wednesday last week at age 92, leaving a legacy many believe cannot be duplicated in generations soon to come. He was honored by the PBA, the league he served tor more than two decades, during last Sunday's doubleheader in the on-going Governors' Cup. His remains lie in state at the Ateneo University College Chapel. A mass of Resurrection will be celebrated at 9 a.m. today a the Ateneo Church. Private interment will follow in the afternoon, also today. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.  |
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