Crispa Redmanizers

Crispa Redmanizers
Joined PBA	1975
History	Crispa Redmanizers 1975-1984 Walk Tall Jeansmakers 1980
Team colors	Green, white, and yellow
Owner(s)	Danny 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 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

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., 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.

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.

Season-by-season records

Legend
Champion       Runner-up       Semifinalist

Season	Conference	Team name	Overall record			Finals
			W	L	%
1975	All-Filipino Cup	Crispa Redmanizers	38	19	.667	Toyota 3, Crispa 1
	Open Conference					Toyota 2, Crispa 1
	Invitational Conference					Crispa 3, Toyota 2
1976	All-Filipino Cup		47	15	.758	Crispa 3, Toyota 1
	Open Conference					Crispa 3, Toyota 1
	Invitational Conference					Crispa 3, Toyota 2
1977	All-Filipino Cup		49	15	.766	Crispa 3, Mariwasa 2
	Open Conference					Crispa 3, U/Tex 2
	Invitational Conference					Toyota 3, Crispa 2
1978	All-Filipino Cup		35	19	.648
	Open Conference					U/Tex 3, Crispa 0
	Invitational Conference
1979	All-Filipino Cup		42	20	.667	Crispa 3, Toyota 2
	Open Conference	Walk Tall Jeans
	Invitational Conference	Crispa Redmanziers				Toyota 3, Crispa 1
1980	Open Conference		44	15	.746
	Invitational Conference
	All-Filipino Cup					Crispa 3, Toyota 1
1981	Open Conference		28	24	.519	Toyota 3, Crispa 2
	Invitational Conference					Crispa 3, U/Tex 1
1982	Reinforced Filipino Cup		28	26	.519
	Invitational Conference					San Miguel 2, Crispa 1
	Open Conference
1983	All-Filipino Cup		46	16	.741	Crispa 3, Gilbey's 0
	Reinforced Filipino Cup					Crispa 3, Great Taste 2
	Open Conference					Crispa 3, Great Taste 0
1984	First All-Filipino Cup		38	23	.623	Crispa 4, Great Taste 1
	Second All-Filipino Cup
	Invitational Conference					Great Taste 3, Crispa 2
Overall record			395	192	.673	13 championships

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 ("Fabulous")

• Alex Azurin
• Dave Brodett
• Cris Calilan
• Jose Bernardo "Joy" Carpio #29
• Edgardo "Ed" Carvajal
• David Cezar
• Arturo "Bay" Cristobal #7
• Ramon "Mon" Cruz #24
• Virgilio "Bong" dela Cruz #12
• Gregorio "Joy" Dionisio #9
• Rudy Distrito #17
• Angelito "Itoy" Esguerra #16
• Eduardo "Ed" Espinosa
• Reynaldo "Rey" Franco #19
• Matthew "Fritz" Gaston
• Van Samson "Sammy" Nery
• Filomeno "Fil" Gulfin
• Adriano "Jun" Papa, Jr. † (Awarded "MICAA KING")
• Joel Gomez
• Cesar Ijares
• Federico "Padim" Israel #9
• Jaime "Jimmy" Javier #44
• Eric Leano
• Lim Eng Beng
• Romulo Mamaril #17
• Reynaldo Pages
• William "Willie" Pearson #22 & #3(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 #13
• Danny Florencio #8
• Rudy Abarrientos
• Padua #31

Imports

• Tom Cowart (MICAA)
• Paul Scranton (MICAA)
• Larry Bunce (MICAA) (Crispa's tallest import at 7'1")
• Johnny Burkes
• Steve Crotty
• William "Bill" Bunton
• Rick Hicks
• Cris McMurray
• Bernard Harris
• Irving Chatmann
• Clarence Kea
• Mike Gibson
• Mike Wagner
• Sylvester Cuyler
• Glenn Mosley
• Lawrence "Larry" Boston
• Glenn Hagan
• Herman Barnes
• Carlton Willis
• Ansley Truitt #43
• Paul Mills
• Cornell Warner
• Byron "Snake" Jones #33
• Cyrus Mann #25 (also wore #27)
• Al Green #12
• DeWayne Jay Scales
• Larry Demic #25
• Billy Ray Bates "The Black Superman" #2
• James Hardy #11

Team manager

• Danny Floro

External links

• MYPBA.com Forums

Preceded by (start)

PBA teams genealogies 1975-84

Succeeded by Shell Azodrin Bugbusters