Bogs vs. Atoy - The Opening Shot of a Shooting Duel (Sports Weekly, 1980)

Sports Weekly Magazine

August 29-September 5, 1980

 

 

            This, then is it – the long-awaited duel under the bright lights of the Big Dome; something like Gun-fight at the OK Corral, part II, the hardcourt version of the “Shootists.”

 

            The protagonists? Crispa’s Fortunato (Atoy) Co and U/Tex’s William (Bogs) Adornado, once Crispa’s dreaded 1-2 punch but now on opposite sides of the fence as a result of Adornado’s acquisition by U/Tex midway in the last conference of the PBA in a Php 100,000 deal that up to now has continued to spark spirited disputes among local basketball fans.

 

            The current invitationals actually is not the first full-length shootout between the two. They have tangled during the first conference, a league eventually won by Adornado’s team, the Wranglers. But things were different then. For Adornado had the advantage of operating under the cover of U/Tex ‘s two imports whom the Wrangler could field at the same time unlike Atoy who didn’t have the same advantage because Crispa and Toyota could only use their imports one at a time.

 

            So the matchup between the two in the Invitationals is “it” – the even-steven shootout between Bogs and Atoy.

 

            It was Co who got off the first draw as the Jeansmakers went up against Nicholas Stoodley in the opening game of the Invitationals. But apparently still unable to fully get over the slump that hit him in the First Conference. Co could only manage an 18-point performance that was only the fourth best individual score by Crispa, as the Jeansmakers pulled off a 103-99 decision over Stoodley, a team composed of pick-up American players from the U.S. West Coast.

 

            Three days later, in the league’s second playdate, Co and Adornado got to meet head-to-head, shot-for-shot as the Jeansmakers took on the Wranglers.

 

            Co’s team won the “war,” coming from 26 points down to score a 99-97 squeaker over a U/Tex team that folded up in the last quarter, but in the personal battle between Atoy and Bogs, it was Adornado who came out on top. While Adornado was pumping in 25 points in a performance that reminded fans about those days when he was chief hit man of Crispa, Co was a picture of frustration almost all the way as attested by this anemic six-point showing.

 

            It was Atoy’s lowest output this season and it could not have come at a worst time – the night o fhis first face-to-face shootout in the Invitationals with his comebacking former teammate.

 

            But very quickly, Co made up for the comedown by coming up with the night’s high of 30 points in Crispa’s losing game two nights later against the tough Adidas-France selection.

 

            That was red-hot shooting Atoy showed against Adidas and it may well mean that the Fortune Cookie is on his way back as Crispa’s principal local bombardier.

 

            If this were really the case, the performances of Co and Adornado in the remaining games of the Invitationals’ double round robin eliminations could turn into an exciting phase of the Co-Adornado shooting duel.

 

 

 

            In the two rounds of the first conference’s elimination series, Co finished way ahead of Adornado with 19.05 points per game average against Adornado’s 13.75. But the statistical fact remains that in the first round, Bogs was still with Crispa. In this round, he only averaged 6.57 points per game. When he moved over to U/Tex, he averaged 19.33.

 

            In the semifinals, Adornado was clearly the better offensive performer than his old shooting partner.

 

            Thus, as both went into the Invitationals, it was Bogs who seemed on the way up and Co still struggling to shake off his shooting woes.

 

            With his 30-point explosion against Adidas, however, Atoy appears to have regained his old shooting form. With Adornado keeping up his almost flawless performance, it perhaps may be said that the duel is heating up, the “new rivalry” between two former teammates hitting a crucial turn.

 

            As to who will manage to come out on top after it’s all over remains anybody’s guess. One thing is sure though. Atoy, the old king of the hit men in the PBA, is not expected to relinquish his crown without making Bogs work hard. And logically, neither will Co’s whole team.

Enter Adornado, the New Wrangler (Sports Weekly, 1980)

Sports Weekly Magazine

May 23-30, 1980

Peter N. Acosta

 

 

            It was his 199^th game as a pro.

 

            It didn’t seem like the time to be all keyed up, but this was exactly how William (Bogs) Adornado felt when he took the hardcourt last Thursday evening at the Big Dome.

           

            “I was tense,” he said. “I shouldn’t be, but I was really tense.”

 

            It was not difficult to understand why.

 

            The principal reason was what happened to his career two days earlier. In one of the most startling developments of the 1980 PBA season, Adornado, who, since the start of the local pro league in 1975, has always been with Crispa, was acquired in a mid-season deal by U/Tex.

 

            Other than an announcement by PBA Commissioner Leo Prieto on Adornado’s acquisition by U/Tex, no other details of the deal between Crispa and U/Tex were bared.

 

            The presumption, however, was that in acquiring Adornado, U/Tex also bound itself to assume the terms and conditions set forth in Adornado’s playing contract with Crispa and may have thrown in more to get this player whose scoring potential the Wranglers need because, according to Coach Tommy Manotoc, “we execute a lot of pattern plays and we need a shooter like Bogs.”

 

            On the part of Crispa, it was silent on why it let go of Adornado, but the decision must have been a painful one because along with Atoy Co, Philip Cezar, and the other Crispa originals of PBA ’75, Bogs played a key role in bringing about the team’s glory years in the league.

 

            Adornado was with the Redmanizers when they pulled off their now legendary grand slam feat in 1976, a coup that involved a sweep of all the PBA’s three conference championships that year.

 

            But tragically, although he figured prominently in the making of that storied feat, the following season saw Adornado agonizing on the sidelines over a knee injury that he got from an accidental bump by U/Tex’s Romeo Frank, who’s now his teammate.

 

 

 

            The incident left him with a torn ligament under the left knee which prevented him from taking off as he used to and from running laterally.

 

            He tried special knee braces just so he can resume playing, but he found the brace (the same one now used by Frank) too heavy for comfort so eventually he decided to have a knee operation.

 

            It was Dr. Antonio C. Rivera, a noted Filipino orthopedic surgeon, who operated on Bogs at the Cardinal Santos hospital in Greenhills, San Juan. The operation only took three hours, but the recuperative period took almost a year and it wasn’t until the All-Filipino conference of 1978 that Bogs was able to return to the hardcourt.

 

            He played 50 games in his comeback year, but because he was used sparingly by Coach Baby Dalupan, he could only manage a 9.48 points per game average, way, way below his old averages of 26.94 in 1975 and 25.66 in the year of the grand slam.

 

            Last season didn’t turn out any better, exposure-wise, for Adornado. Although he saw action in 52 games, he was only good for 10.79 points per game average.

 

            Three months earlier, before the ’79 season opened, Bogs had expressed his disenchantment over his limited use by Coach Dalupan, which he said it may have been responsible for his slow return to his old form, and then had told Sports Weekly Magazine in an exclusive interview that he was seriously considering a transfer “if the terms are right.”

 

            Among the teams that expressed an interest then in Adornado was U/Tex. A week after the 1979 Christmas holidays, Adornado was supposed to have met with Coach Manotoc. But apparently, nothing came out of that because the ’79 season saw Adornado with a new playing contract from Crispa.

 

            The opening of the new PBA season saw Bogs getting more exposure and being sent in during tight spots in lieu of Atoy Co who was blowing hot and cold. He started against Toyota and Tefilin, but then was sidelined for the next three games.

 

            In one of his high scoring nights in the first round, he logged in 19 points against Great Taste but against U/Tex, he had only four points and against Royal Tru Orange, in his last stint with Crispa, he also had four.

 

            From the way things had gone for him in the last round, it seemed like it would be another agonizing year for Adornado, but then came his shift to U/Tex and now, his career has taken on a new turn.

 

            Exposing him as he had never been exposed by Crispa, Coach Manotoc fielded Bogs early and apparently, because of his first-time jitters with his new team, Bogs never really got to his first five tries. He eventually made seven points in the first half.

 

            For U/Tex fans, that performance may have looked like the Wranglers had gotten a “lemon” in acquiring Bogs, but early in the third, he finally exploded.

 

 

 

            Popping them in the way he used to during the glory days of Crispa, Adornado helped key a 10-point U/Tex breakaway and when Gilbey’s threatened to come back early in the fourth, he muzzled the threat with two key shots – a three-point goal and a soft jumper.

 

            It was a notable first time up by Bogs with his new team and expectedly, Coach Manotoc was elated.

 

            Although Bogs, according to Manotoc, still seemed out of shape, he said he was confident that Bogs would be “a big help in our bid for a semifinal slot.”

 

            As to why U/Tex got Adornado when his performance chart in the last two seasons showed nothing that would indicate that Bogs still has got that old zing on the firing line, Manotoc said the team needed him because it goes into a lot of pattern plays. And Bogs, the resurrected Bogs, fits very well into the Wranglers’ pattern for victory.

 

            And how does Bogs feel about leading his old ballclub?

 

            Naturally, he said, he was “sad” because he had been with Crispa for such a long time.

           

            But then, he stressed, “I cannot be warming the bench all the time. With more exposure, I know I can still be competitive.”

 

            Like him, the Wrangler camp is also hoping that he could still be, and even more so, that as he gets more and more time on the hardcourt, he’ll regain that shooting touch that made him one of local basketball’s most awesome pop-shooters.

A Lot of Offers, but Will Bogs Bite? (Sports Weekly, 1979)

Sports Weekly Magazine

January 5-12, 1979

 

 

Sports for 1978 should have been a momentous one for William (Bogs) Adornado because that was the year when he finally made it back to the hardcourt after a brush with a torn ligament that all but spilled the end of his career. But Adornado, now 26, doesn’t feel that way at all about it.

 

“Sure,” he told Sports Weekly magazine, “I have every reason to be happy about ’78 because it is the first year of my comeback, but sad to say, things didn’t work out the way I had expected they would be.”

 

By this, he explained, he meant that as much as he wanted to come back with a bang and regain his old place of prominence on the Crispa lineup, he was only able to gain so much mileage in his bid to prove to himself and his fans that the Bogs of old is really back.

 

He then recalled how at the start of last year’s All-Filipino, the kick-off tournament of the PBA’s 1978 season, he was ready and raring to assume his old role as one of the most dreaded hit men in the Crispa team; how physically and mentally, he was primed to show everyone that all is well again with him.

 

So, what happened?

 

“Well,” he said, “you saw what happened. Until the third conference where we played off with the U/Tex Wranglers for third place, I never got the game time exposure that I felt I needed and which, in my view, would have symbolized Coach’s (Dalupan’s) confidence in my ability to play as well as I did in the past.”

 

He was quick to add, though that “he hasn’t got anything” against Coach Dalupan, nor was he questioning Dalupan’s decision to use him sparingly in the first and second conferences and all the way up to the first two games of the third conferences’ qualifying rounds.

 

“Maybe he thought I really was not prepared to play as hard and as long as I used to,” he said. “Maybe he thought that I shouldn’t be rushed on the road in my comeback.”

 

Still, Adornado feels that if only he had been exposed more, if he had been given more playing time, he would have been able to prove that the injury which sidelined him for almost three years is now a thing of the past.

 

He said that from the time he made his way back to the hardcourt after the long layoff during which he underwent surgery at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital and then therapy, he could feel it in his bones that all he needed were the breaks to make his comeback momentous. But he never got such breaks.

 

Bogs then recalled several games of Crispa, including the exhibition series where Crispa played the rest of the PBA stars, where after waxing hot with his shots, he would suddenly find himself being lifted.

 

 

 

“Again,” he said, “I’m not questioning the reasons of Coach for pulling me out even when I’m hot, but then you can just imagine how things like these are liable to shake up a man’s composure.”

 

(Of one game which Adornado cited, Sports Weekly columnist Vic Villafranca recalled the Cebu game of the Crispa-All Stars series last summer where Adornado, after hitting five for five from the field, was pulled out by Coach Dalupan).

 

(Asked why he did this, Dalupan said that although Bogs went great guns in the offense, he was a liability in the defense. By this, Baby inferred that although Bogs really was popping them in from his favorite angles, he was a drag on the team in so far as defense was concerned).

 

A review of the road taken by Bogs on his comeback trail showed him scoring 10 points in the first game in PBA ’78 as Crispa bowed to U/Tex in the All-Filipino and then going on from there to score his first 20-pointer of the season as Crispa scuttled Honda in the second round of the series’ elimination round.

 

Other than that 20-point explosion, however, Adornado struggled all throughout the All-Filipino.

 

            It was pretty much the same thing in the second conference, where Crispa lost out to U/Tex in the best of five title playoffs.

 

In the third conference where he was used often obviously as a consequence of Atoy Co’s being sidelined after the third game of the eliminations, Adornado exploded with 25 points in the first game of the Crispa-U/Tex third place playoffs, had 16 points in the second and another 16-pointer in the third match.

 

That performance, says Adornado, shows that he has come around full circle and that all it needs is to make him stay longer in the game. But he doubts whether he’ll get this. “Alam mo naman, pagbalik na ng mga stars naming, banko na naman tayo,” he said.

 

Apparently, Bogs is not at all happy with the way things worked out for him in his first comeback year, and that largely on account of this, he may be prompted to switch to another ballclub which would find a better use for his services.

 

Is he really thinking of splitting from Crispa?

 

            “Maraming offer,” he said, “marami, but I haven’t made up my mind.”

The Night Toyota Ran over Crispa (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

June 23-30, 1978

On the Line, Vic Villafranca

 

 

Editor’s Note: Two hours before the Toyota-Crispa game last Tuesday, SWM columnist Vic Villafranca looked like he needed a stiff drink. He kept asking everybody: do you think Sports Weekly magazine will taste better with mustard or catsup? The reason for this was a week ago, in the last issue of SWM, Vic had vowed to eat a whole issue of SWM for breakfast if his prediction of a Toyota win by at least four points over Crispa didn’t come true.)

 

            Put away the mustard, Sim and Pyke, you may do the same thing with the catsup.

 

            That’s right, fellows, it’s off – the spectacle of this full-grown columnist chomping on the latest issue of Sports Weekly magazine for breakfast because Tuesday night at the Araneta Coliseum, before a packed house that included a big batch of keelhauled Crispanatics, a fired-up Toyota team, playing as if there’s no tomorrow, unloaded its big bombs against a badly outclassed Crispa outfit, 158 to 135, to round out its qualifying round playdates with a 12-2 won loss record.

 

            It was the same record posted by the chastised Crispa Redmanizers for the same stretch – Crispa’s first loss coming off an opening day setback to the U/Tex Wranglers, and its second, the drubbing that was almost cold-bloodedly administered Tuesday by Toyota.

 

            As for the Tamaraws, their two losses came at the hands of the Redmanizers in the first round and to the Tanduay Esquires Friday last week in an out-of-town match in Davao.

 

            So the two ballclubs, both of whom had wrapped up semifinal berths earlier than usual, came to the end of their respective qualifying round campaigns all square, although it seemed Toyota had all the more reasons to whoop it up with what they pulled off before a turn-away crowd estimated at 25,000 at the Big Dome.

 

 

 

            It was murder; plain, unadulterated murder.

 

            Playing as if in one evening they intended to make up for the humiliating that they suffered in Davao and, a month earlier, in Manila, the numbing aftermath of a crushing setback to the Redmanizers, Coach Dante Silverio’s boy went full steam all the way against Crispa in their second meeting with the Redmanizers this season to walk off the hardcourt with their prestige back in their pockets.

 

            Right from that time late in the first quarter when they pulled away by as much as 17 points, the back-with-a-vengeance Tamaraws never gave the Redmanizers a chance to breathe.

 

            The first period ended with Toyota’s lead down to 11 points on two quick hits by Philip Cezar and Tito Varela, but when Sonny Jaworski and Danny Florencio opened the second quarter with two completed fast break plays, the Tamaraws were again off and running.

 

            After two minutes, Toyota’s bulge had ballooned anew to 17, then 20 and all the way up to 23 when Francis Arnaiz, back in the groove as Toyota’s best clutch hitter, teamed up with Estoy Estrada and Jaworski to touch off an 11-4 Toyota blast that closed out the first half at 78-57.

 

            In the third quarter, the game assumed the character of a public slaughter of the once-dreaded Redmanizers when the Tamaraws relentlessly banged in 45 points against Crispa’s 26 to bust the match wide open going into the final period.

 

            In this torrid third, it was the “old” Toyota gang of Jaworski, Arnaiz and Ramon Fernandez who presided over the carnage. By the time the buzzer sounded, the Tamaraws were way out in Bangkok by 30 points.

 

            From this point on, it was all downhill for the Tamaraws although earlier in the fourth, the game was threatened by a melee and with 8:33 left, the Redmanizers had attempted a last gasp turnaround by bringing down Toyota’s lead to 21 points.

 

            The Redmanizers, however, never got farther than that because promptly, the Tamaraws unleashed a 12-4 barrage that sent Toyota’s lead up again to 31. Toyota’s margin of victory eventually settled at 23, which was deceptive because until the game swung into a you-shoot contest, the Tamaraws were wielding the axe at will on a hapless Crispa team.

 

 

 

            As in their previous encounters, the latest episode in the four-year old running gun battle between the two ballclubs was staged amid the pressure cooker atmosphere of an epic struggle.

 

            Standings-wise, the match was a no-bearing affair since both teams had assured themselves of semifinal round berths as early as the third playdate of the second round of the double-round qualifying run. Just the same, they went at each other’s throats as if Tuesday night was already championship night.

 

            As in so many Toyota-Crispa encounters, Tuesday’s night fever pitch confrontation was not without its share of tense moments and its roster of players sent out of the hardcourt due to injuries or by allowing their tempers to run amuck.

 

            For Crispa, the injury list was headed by Abet Guidaben, the Redmanizers’ 6’5 center, who suffered a busted jaw when he got hit by Fernandez as he was driving in for a lay-up. Toyota’s loss was Fort Acuña, who was thrown out of the ballgame when he touched off a melee after 1:25 in the final quarter.

 

            Jaworski was earlier sidelines because of a sprained ankle, but turned out not to be a serious injury because Jaworski was able to get back into the game. Fernandez had his lip split, but this didn’t stop him from finishing the game.

 

            By dealing the defending PBA All-Filipino champions the worst beating ever administered to Crispa this season, Toyota fully settled a two-month old score with the Redmanizers.

 

            But more than this, the Tamaraws, who are shooting for their second All-Filipino tournament championship, have emerged from the grey shadow of their two qualifying round losses and established themselves anew as the team most likely to win what is often known as the most prestigious title of the year-round PBA series.

 

            One runaway decision over Crispa doesn’t of course mean they’ve got it made, but with that awesome run and gun performance the Tamaraws have left no doubt about their being the most awesome ballclub in the All-Filipino when they are on. As undoubtedly and convincingly they were Tuesday night at the Big Dome when they all but reduced the Redmanizers to the category of a pedestrian that got hit by a runaway truck and never got to know what really hit them until it was time to take off their casts.

 

            Quote unquote –

 

            Atoy Co, upon reading SWM’s prediction of a Toyota win by at least four points: “Because of that, we’re going to beat Toyota.”

 

            Coach Dante Silverio, a week before the Tams went up against Crispa: “We’re going to beat them, Buddy.”

 

            Crispa owner and manager, Danny Floro, when asked if he was “nervous” about the outcome of the second Crispa-Toyota game in the All-Filipino: “I am always very nervous when we play Toyota.”

 

            Crispanatic, Naty Redublo, on SWM’s prediction: “So you think Toyota is gonna beat us by four points, huh? Man, you must be dreaming or out of your mind.”

The Big Question: Bogs Has Returned but Can He Make It All the Way Back? (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

April 28-May 5, 1978

 

            It had been a full seven minutes since the defending champion Crispa Redmanizers shuffled out of the Araneta hardcourt and back to their locker room, the unlikely victims of a jarring upset impressively carved out by Coach Tommy Manotoc’s U/Tex Wranglers in the big game of the 1978 PBA All-Filipino conference’s inaugural doubleheader.

 

            Normally, such a shocking opening day outcome would have been enough to transform the Crispa dugout into local pro basketball’s version of a funeral home, but this wasn’t to be one of those nights.

 

            Not really because an opening day loss isn’t a setback from which the two-time PBA All-Filipino champs can’t recover, but rather the fact that after nearly two years, the ballclub’s most devastating hit man, good ol’ No. 11 himself, William (Bogs) Adornado, has made his way back to the Crispa lineup.

 

            Bogs was, to be sure, a long time coming.

 

            Since he hurt his knee towards the tailend of the first conference of the PBA’s 1976 season, a year when the Redmanizers scored the league’s first eye-popping grand slam, the former UST Glowing Goldie has been on Crispa’s inactive list.

 

            He underwent a series of treatments for his injured knee after that, including a surgery performed around the middle last year at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital at Greenhills, San Juan, Rizal. Still, his return to the game which he has played so well both as an amateur and a pro remained very much in doubt.

 

            And when during the last electoral campaign for IBP seats, during which the Crispa team played exhibition games to boost the candidacy of Crispa owner and founder, Pablo Floro, Bogs continued to remain on the sidelines although he has joined in its sorties for Don Pablo, this further raised doubts about his ability to come back.

 

 

 

            His name, however, was included by Crispa owner and manager, Danny Floro, in the lineup which the ballclub submitted for the first conference. Despite this, no one, not even Floro or Coach Baby Dalupan himself, was sure whether Adornado would take the first step leading to a long-awaited comeback.

 

            Said Floro when asked whether the inclusion of Bogs’ name in the team slate meant he was all set to play. “It all depends on Bogs. Na sa kanya yun.”

 

            A similar view was expressed by Coach Dalupan, who said, “Only Adornado who can decide whether he’s ready or not.”

 

            Both made it clear they were not about to push Bogs back into the hardcourt, because the extent of his injury was such that only he could really decide whether physically and mentally, but most of all, mentally, he is ready for a comeback.

 

            As for Bogs himself, he remained non-committal although he had told friends that physically, he’s about as fit he can possibly be. He was obviously referring to the jogging and scrimmage sessions that he had been doing since he checked out of the hospital following his operation.

 

            Asked on the eve of the PBA opening whether he’ll play in Crispa’s first game, he said, “we’ll see.”

 

            And so game time for Crispa in its first match of the season came and what the fullhouse of some 30,000 at the Big Dome saw as the Redmanizers made their way in for the ritualistic warmup was Bogs garbed in his old No. 11 uniform.

 

            Very quickly, his presence on the hardcourt in Crispa’s full regalia touched off a buzzing in the stands. Later, the buzzing turned to hard claps and then into an explosion of cheers as Bogs made the first ever field goal he has ever attempted in a PBA game since he was sidelined.

 

            He made another field goal after that, and then went 100 percent on six free throws to finish night with 10 points.

 

            The output – two FG’s and six FT’s – wasn’t anything close to the bushelful of points that Adornado used to rack up before he was injured and forced to spend the next two years on the sidelines, but it wasn’t so bad for a ballplayer who was just trying to get used again to the feel of the hardcourt.

 

            As Crispa manager Floro said: “We couldn’t ask for more.”

 

            Crispa certainly can’t. The fact alone that it has got Bogs back ought to make up for that stiff one at the jaw which the Redmanizers took from the U/Tex Wranglers.