| Canóvanas Indios | |
|---|---|
| Point Guard | |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth | September 20, 1958 |
| Place of birth | NYC |
| Nationality | Puerto Rico |
| Listed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Listed weight | 175 lb (79 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | Bethany Nazarene College Essex County College |
| League | BSN |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Competitor for Puerto Rico | ||
| Men's Basketball | ||
| Pan American Games | ||
| Silver | San Juan 1979 | Team Competition |
| Bronze | Ind'polis 1987 | Team Competition |
| Tournament of the Americas | ||
| Silver | Montevideo 1988 | Team Competition |
Angelo "Monch" Cruz is a Puerto Rican former basketball player. He was born in New York, New York. Coming out of the Patterson Projects in the Bronx, "Monchito" was a New York City Playground legend by the time he finished High School at DeWitt Clinton High School. After playing at Bethany Nazarene College (OK) and Essex (NJ) County College, he moved on to play professionally in Puerto Rico.[1]
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In 1977, when he was 18 years old, he began his Baloncesto Superior Nacional basketball career with the Canóvanas Indios for whom he played for 13 seasons. Nicknamed "Angelo" in Puerto Rico, he was soon thereafter selected to represent Puerto Rico, and would continue to do so in many International Tournaments around the world. In the BSN, Puerto Rico's Pro League, he led Canóvanas to back-to-back championships in 1983 and 1984 and recorded his 1,500th assist in 1988.[2] His Canóvanas Indios battles with perennial powerhouses Bayamón, Guaynabo and San Germán are still famous in BSN lore.[3] After 16 years in the league averaging 14.8 points and 4.8 assists per game, he retired after the 1993 season.[4]
At the age of 20, he was part of Puerto Rico's 1979 Pan American team that earned a silver medal in San Juan in a memorable PR-USA showdown against the Isiah Thomas/Bobby Knight led USA team. He would go on to play in two more Pan Am Games in 1983 in Caracas, Venezuela and in 1987 at Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1984 he played at the FIBA 1984 Tournament of the Americas Olympic Qualifier in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1990 he played at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, Washington.
In 1988 he helped qualify Puerto Rico to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, at the 1988 Tournament of the Americas Olympic Qualifier in Montevideo, Uruguay. At that time, Puerto Rico had been absent from the Summer Olympics since 1976. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Korea he led the Puerto Rican National Basketball Team in assists and was second in scoring with a 12.375 scoring average.[5] Against Yugoslavia, He scored the winning shot at the buzzer to beat the eventual Silver Medalist, which was led by soon-to-be NBA players Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac 74-72.[6]
He played in two FIBA World Tournaments, 1986 in Spain and 1990 in Argentina. In 1990, in Buenos Aires, he helped Puerto Rico earn a Fourth Place at the 1990 FIBA World Championship. On its way to a 7-0 record his team defeated World Powers Yugoslavia, Team USA, and Australia, only to lose its last two games in the medal round to the Soviet Union and Team USA. That was his final participation in International Competition.
Angelo Cruz retired from basketball in 1993, after which he found a job working at Yankee Stadium, where he met and befriended New York Yankees player Jose Valentin. However, around 1997, he mysteriously disappeared and has never been found or heard of again. [7]
Cruz was married to Carmen Diaz Farrell. The couple had one son, Alvin, who plays with the Ponce Lions of the Puerto Rican professional basketball league, BSN.
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