1979 Crispa Redmanizers season

The 1979 Crispa Redmanizers season was the fifth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Known as Walk Tall Jeans in the Third Conference.

Colors

Crispa Redmanizers (All-Filipino and Open Conferences)
                         (dark)
                         (light)
Crispa Redmanizers (Invitational Conference)
                    (dark)
                    (light)
Walk Tall Jeans (Invitational Conference)
                         (dark)
                         (light)

Notable dates

May 19: Fortunato "Atoy" Co became the first PBA player to score 5,000 points by pouring in 37 points in Crispa's 119-110 win over Tanduay.

June 21: Crispa defeats Toyota in a semifinal game, 172-142, as Atoy Co scored 50 points while Abe King of Toyota set the record for the conference highest total output of 60 points. ^[1]

Summary

The Crispa Redmanizers were tied with defending champion Toyota Tamaraws on top of the standings after 16 games in the eliminations with a 14-2 won-loss slate. In the four-team semifinal round, the Redmanizers easily won their first two assignments against Tanduay and Filmanbank before losing to Toyota, 111-120 on June 16, in the battle of unbeaten teams in the first round of the semifinals, five days later, Crispa sealed a finals showdown with Toyota as the Tamaraws gave away the contest in losing 142-172 to the Redmanizers. Both teams had a 4-1 card going into the last playing date of the semifinals. Crispa won their last game against winless Filmanbank to finish with a 5-1 won-loss slate.

After a crownless season last year and a two-year absence of the league's most notable rivalry, Crispa and Toyota once again played against each other for the All-Filipino Conference finals. On July 7th, the Crispa Redmanizers wins the All-Filipino crown and clinch their seventh league title, defeating Toyota Tamaraws, 118-111, in the deciding fifth game to win the series, 3 games to 2.

The Redmanizers opted again for Cyrus Mann, along with former Los Angeles Laker Cornell Warner, as their imports for the Open Conference. Warner played only in the first round of eliminations since he was bothered by a leg injury, his replacement was Irvin Chatman, who never got to play at once because of a sprained ankle. Crispa finish third in the eliminations with an 11-5 won-loss card, behind RTO's 13-3 and Toyota's 12-4. After posting two victories against a lone defeat in the first round of the semifinals, the Redmanizers lost twice in succession to Toyota and Royal and despite their 155-127 win over Great Taste in their last outing on October 25, the Toyota Tamaraws shut the door on their finals hopes with a win over first finalist Royal Tru-Orange later that night. Crispa lost to Great Taste in their playoff for third place with Cyrus Mann out as team owner Danny Floro announced they was sacking their import for the past four seasons.

Known as Walk Tall Jeans in the Invitational championship, the ballclub got Bernard Harris from Tanduay as their import to team up with Irvin Chatman and they made it to the finals against old rival Toyota Tamaraws. The Jeansmakers won Game one of the series but lost the next three games to settle for runner-up trophy.

Award

Fortunato "Atoy" Co, Jr. won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy in a closely fought and controversial race between him and Toyota center Ramon Fernandez for the prestigious award.

Roster

References