Crispa Redmanizers

Crispa Redmanizers
Joined PBA	1975
History	Crispa Redmanizers 1975-1984 Walk Tall Jeansmakers 1980
Team colors	Green, white, and gold
Owner(s)	Valeriano "Danny" L. Floro †
Company	P. Floro and Sons, Inc.
Head coaches	Baby Dalupan, Tommy Manotoc, Narciso Bernardo
Championships	PBA: 13 (1975 All-Philippine, 1976 All-Filipino, 1976 Open, 1976 All-Philippine, 1977 All-Filipino, 1977 Open, 1979 All-Filipino, 1980 All-Filipino, 1981 Reinforced, 1983 All-Filipino, 1983 Reinforced Filipino, 1983 Open, 1984 First All-Filipino) PBL: 2 (1990 Challenge, 1991 Maharlika)
Disbanded	1985
Uniforms
Light uniform Dark uniform

The Crispa Redmanizers were 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

Named after the department store chain & textile company owned by the Floro family, the Redmanizers were managed by sportsman Danny Floro and was coached for many years by the legendary Virgilio "Baby" Dalupan.

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.,Rolando Patricio, 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 would 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 younger player by bringing in Mapúa 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. Nothing comes close to the Crispa-Toyota Rivalry. The two teams really hated each other & would rather lose to other teams than to 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 in five 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 "Bay" Cristobal, Elpidio "Yoyoy" Villamin, Padim Israel, 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 Senator 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.

Legacy

From 1989 to 1992, a new Crispa franchise emerged to play in the Phililippine Amateur Basketball League (PABL) in an attempt to return to basketball. The franchise was short-lived due to the continued financial difficulties faced by its parent company and the death of Danny Floro in 1995.

Season-by-season records

Team roster (1975-1984)

Members of the PBA's 25th anniversary all-time team are in boldface.

• Fortunato "Atoy" Co, Jr. #6 -- Team Captain/Shooting guard ("Fortune Cookie")
• William "Bogs" Adornado #11—Small forward
• Philip Cezar #18—Power forward ("The Scholar" "Mr. Stretch" "King Philip")
• Abet Guidaben #5 -- Center
• Freddie Hubalde #10—Small forward/shooting guard
• Bernie Fabiosa #15—Point guard ("Tough Job")
• Rudy "The Magician" Soriano #7
• Alex Azurin
• Dave Brodett
• Cris Calilan #23
• Jose Bernardo "Joy" Carpio #29
• Edgardo "Ed" Carvajal
• David Cezar #20
• Arturo "Bay" Cristobal #8,#7
• Ramon "Mon" Cruz #4
• Virgilio "Bong" dela Cruz #12
• Gregorio "Joy" Dionisio #9
• Rudy Distrito #14
• Angelito "Itoy" Esguerra #16
• Eduardo "Ed" Espinosa
• Reynaldo "Rey" Franco #19
• Matthew "Fritz" Gaston #22
• Van Samson "Sammy" Nery
• Filomeno "Fil" Gulfin
• Adriano "Jun" Papa, Jr. † (Awarded "MICAA KING")#10
• Joel Gomez
• Cesar Ijares
• Federico "Padim" Israel #9
• Jaime "Jimmy" Javier #44, #8
• Eric Leano
• Lim Eng Beng #14
• Romulo Mamaril #17
• Reynaldo Pages
• William "Willie" Pearson #11 & #33(VIP and the Mailman)
• Johnny Revilla
• Rodolfo "Rudy" Soriano #7 ("Nano" "The Magician")
• Wilfredo "Willy" Tanduyan #19
• Reynaldo "Rey" Vallejo
• Luis "Tito" Varela #14 ("Kojak")
• Elpidio "Yoyoy" Villamin #12, #13
• Danny Florencio #8
• Virgilio "Billy" Abarrientos
• Padua #31
• Reynaldo "Epoy" Alcantara
• Jun Celis
• Jesus Santa Maria
• Ernesto "Ernie" de Leon
• Rudolf Kutch

Imports

• Tom Cowart (MICAA)
• Paul Scranton (MICAA)
• Larry Bunce (MICAA) (Crispa's tallest import at 7'1")
• Johnny Burkes (1975)
• Pete Crotty (1975)
• William "Bill" Bunton (1976)
• Cyrus Mann #25 & #27 (1976-1977, 1979)
• Ricky Hicks (1977)
• Cris McMurray (1977)
• Ansley Truitt #43 (1978)
• Paul Mills (1978)
• Cornell Warner (1979)
• Bernard Harris (1979)
• Irving Chatmann (1979)
• Byron "Snake" Jones #33 (1980-1981)
• Sylvester Cuyler (1980)
• Glenn Mosley (1980)
• Lawrence "Larry" Boston (1980)
• James Hardy #11 (1981)
• Al Green #12 (1981)
• James Wright (1982)
• Lew Brown (1982)
• Mike Schultz (1982)
• Clarence Kea (1982)
• Mike Gibson (1982)
• Mike Wagner (1982)
• Glenn Hagan (1982)
• DeWayne Jay Scales (1983)
• Larry Demic #25 (1983)
• Billy Ray Bates "The Black Superman" #2 (1983)
• Herman Barnes (1984)
• Carlton Willis (1984)

Head coaches

• Virgilio "Baby" Dalupan (1975-1982)
• Tommy Manotoc (1983-1984)
• Narciso Bernardo † (1984)

Team managers

• Valeriano "Danny" L. Floro †
• Ernesto "Ting" L. Floro (1983)

See also

• Crispa 400 – PBL team

External links

• MYPBA.com Forums