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The Crispa Redmanizers was a basketball team in the Manila Industrial Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and the Philippine Amateur Basketball League from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

Profile and History

• by OFW Guardian

The Redmanizers were managed by sportsman Danny Floro and was coached for many years by the legendary Virgilio "Baby" Dalupan, who was also an owner of several UAAP men's basketball championships with the UE Red Warriors, which his family owned.

Crispa won 13 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) championships in a span of nine years. Even more amazing is that the Crispa’s roster during the PBA inaugural in 1975 had five future Most Valuable Player awardees. In hindsight, this was not a mere championship team; it was an all-star team.

Crispa’s beginnings are rooted in the old Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA). In 1971, a Crispa team composed of Reynaldo Alcantara, Rudolph Kutch, Ernesto de Leon, Rodolfo Soriano, Danilo Florencio, Johnny Revilla, Adriano Papa, Jr., William "Bogs" Adornado, Virgilio Abarrientos, Danilo Pecache, Domingo Celis, Jr. and Rey Franco played and lost to Meralco in the MICAA championships. This Crispa team was the precursor of the professional basketball team that will dominate the PBA.

In 1973, authorities discovered that six of the team’s players had conspired with gamblers to drop a championship series against underdog Mariwasa. These six players, including four of the five starters (only Bogs Adornado was found innocent among the starting five), were served lifetime suspensions. With their line-up depleted, manager Valeriano “Danny” Floro and coach Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan were forced to rebuild. They opted to go with with younger player by bringing in Mapua Institute of Technology hotshot Fortunato “Atoy” Co, Jr. and Colegio de San Jose Recoletos standout Abet Guidaben in 1973, and Jose Rizal College’s Philip Cezar and RP Youth Team players Bernie Fabiosa and Alfredo "Freddie" Hubalde in 1974.

Very early on, Crispa’s rival for basketball supremacy was Toyota – a team spearheaded by Robert Jaworski, Francis Arnaiz, and Ramon Fernandez, stars of the old Meralco franchise. The two teams were said to really hated each other. It was not uncommon to have games marred by bench clearing brawls. The two teams also had very different personalities with the fair haired and fair skinned Toyota players appealing more to the upper crust of Philippine society whereas the Redmanizers were perceived to be the team of the masses.

Toyota won the first two conferences in 1975, beating Crispa both times. Crispa finally sneaked in and clinched the Third Conference in a battle so fierce it got marred by a free-for-all. Once the Redmanizers got a taste of the championship, however, they simply did not let go. They won all three conferences in 1976, being the first PBA team to win a “grand slam”. They won another two championships in 1977, despite the loss of leading scorer and reigning MVP Adornado to a knee injury at the start of the year.

From 1978 to 1982, however, Crispa went into a title slump. They won no championships in 1978, only the All-Filipino championships in 1979 to 1981, and were blanked once again in 1982. Three conference championships infive years may be good enough for most teams but not for the powerful Redmanizers.

The team rectified the situation by dissolving the Floro-Dalupan partnership and bringing in former U-Tex coach and president Ferdinand Marcos' son-in-law Tomas “Tommy” Manotoc to serve as coach. The team also got an infusion of young talent as amateur standouts Arturo "Bai" Cristobal, Elpidio "Yoyong" Villamin, Padim Ysrael, and Mon Cruz became the newest Redmanizers. To top it all off, Crispa hired import Billy Ray Bates to augment an already awesome cast. The Redmanizers proceeded to dominate the competition, sweeping all three conference championships in 1983, another grand slam.

Crispa’s 1983 grand slam campaign, however, could not prevent the inevitable break-up of the team. Arch-rival Toyota had already disbanded prior to the start of the 1984 season as the political and economic turmoil following the assassination of opposition stalwart Ninoy Aquino made it increasingly difficult for companies to finance professional basketball teams. Crispa bagged the first conference All-Filipino title for a total of 13 franchise titles but played poorly in the remainder of 1984 campaign. On February 1, 1985, PBA Commissioner Mariano Yengko announced the sale of Crispa’s PBA franchise to Pilipinas Shell. The sports pages of the day read out the sad and anti-climactic manner by which the legendary team was dismantled.

A new Crispa team quietly reemerged in the amateur leagues in the late 1980s content with developing young players rather than recapturing its former glory. They won a PABL title coached by Atoy Co, and later have future PBA MVP Johnny Abarrientos on the squad before the team left basketball for good.

Team Trivia

• Crispa team manager Danny Floro believed the color green stood for life, luck and prosperity and used this particular shade as the team’s colors.
• Crispa (MICAA team) forwards Adornado, Papa and Florencio were members of the national team that played in the 1972 Munich Games, the last time the Philippines represented Asia in Olympic basketball competition.
• Redmanizer Center Abet Guidaben opened a betamax video tape rental shop called “Abetamax” in Quezon City. The shop was robbed twice (probably by Toyota fans?) and had to close down.
• Padim Israel, who played for Crispa in the 1980’s, now serves as the associate pastor of Bread from Heaven Christian Fellowship. He was ordained minister of the Word in 1998 by the Christian Reformed Church of the Philippines and is married to Josefina Sta. Ana (aka Rio Locsin).
• Before winning 15 championships in the PBA, Baby Dalupan amassed 12 University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) titles for the UE Red Warriors and two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships for his alma mater, the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). Perhaps not many people know that when Dalupan coached the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the 1970s, he refused to receive any salary. To him, it was an honor as an alumnus of the university to serve as its coach.
• During the 1976 All-Filipino Series, trailing 2-0, Crispa, its bench depleted by ailments, almost defaulted as it only had six players in uniform. Danny Floro had to fetch two feverish players from the hospital and made them suit up. Miraculously, Crispa managed to win that game as well as the next two, winning the series.

Team Roster(1975-1984)

• Atoy Co #6 -- Team Captain/Point guard
• William "Bogs" Adornado #11 -- Shooting forward
• Philip Cezar #18 -- Power forward
• Bernie Fabiosa #15 -- Off guard
• Abet Guidaben #5 -- Center
• Freddie Hubalde #10 -- Shooting forward
• Alex Azurin
• Dave Brodett
• Cris Calilan
• Joy Carpio
• Ed Carvajal
• David Cezar
• Arturo "Bai" Cristobal #7
• Mon Cruz
• Bong dela Cruz #12
• Gregorio "Joy" Dionisio #9
• Rudy Distrito
• Angelito "Itoy" Esguerra
• Rey Franco
• Fritz Gaston
• Joel Gomez
• Cesar Ijares
• Padim Israel
• Jimmy Javier
• Eric Leano
• Lim Eng Beng
• Romulo Mamaril
• Reynaldo Pages
• Willy Pearson
• Rudy Soriano #7
• Willy Tanduyan
• Rey Vallejo
• Luis "Tito" Varela
• Elpidio "Yoyoy" Villamin

Imports

• Johnny Burkes
• Steve Crotty
• William "Bill" Bunton
• Rick Hicks
• Cris McMurray
• Bernard Harris
• Irving Chatmann
• Clarence Kea
• Kirk Gibson
• Mike Wagner
• Sylvester Cuyler
• Glenn Mosley
• Lawrence "Larry" Boston
• Glenn Hagan
• Herman Barnes
• Carlton Willis
• Ansley Truitt
• Paul Mills
• Cornell Warner
• Byron "Snake" Jones
• Cyrus Mann
• Al Green
• DeWayne Jay Scales
• Larry Demic
• Billy Ray Bates
• James Hardy

Team manager

• Danny Floro

External links

• MYPBA.com Forums

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• 1985 disestablishments
• Defunct Philippine Basketball Association teams