FOUR Ateneo de Manila University products own five championship rings during their five-year varsity tenure with the Blue Eagles in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball competitions from 2008 to 2012.
They are Nico Salva, Justin Chua, Tonino Gonzaga and Chris Sumalinog. No other player has won five titles exclusively in the history of the UAAP or National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
However, the aforementioned quartet’s Ateneo teammate, Greg Slaughter, also collected five crowns during his collegiate career – three with the University of the Visayas in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc (CESAFI) and two with the Blue Eagles in the UAAP.
In U.S. NCAA Division I men’s basketball history, only one player was able to secure three national titles during a four-year career. And if not for the NCAA rule that disallowed freshmen from suiting up for the varsity team at the time, it could have easily been four-for-four in title victories for Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., a gangling but dominant center from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
Alcindor, an aloof 7-foot-2 man-mountain out of New York City, steered the UCLA Bruins to three straight NCAA tournament championships in 1967, 1968 and 1969.
On all three occasions, Alcindor was voted the NCAA Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. It’s a feat that has not been duplicated by any other player in NCAA Division I history until now.
Had Alcindor been eligible to see action as a frosh in 1966, he would most likely have claimed a fourth ring. Until 1972-73, first-year collegians were barred from competing in the NCAA tournament.
The 1965-66 UCLA squad also copped the NCAA diadem when Alcindor apprenticed with the Bruins’ junior varsity unit (freshmen who only played exhibition games).
In November 1965, the Alcindor-led freshman team blasted the varsity team, 75-60, in the first game at the Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins’ home arena. Alcindor collected 31 points and 21 rebounds in that exhibition match.
As a sophomore in 1966-67, the tree-like Alcindor became a dominant figure with his slam-dunking moves. That spurred the NCAA to ban the dunk after the 1967 collegiate wars. It was not allowed again until 1976.
For Alcindor, the ban was a blessing in disguise as he started to develop another potent offensive weapon that later patently became known as the “skyhook.” He was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend against.
Alcindor said he learned the move in fifth grade after practicing with the Mikan Drill and soon learned to value it, as it was “the only shot I could use that didn’t get smashed back in my face,” meaning it was hard for his defender to block the shot without goaltending.
In three seasons at Westwood, Alcindor won 86 of 88 games that he was involved in. He missed a pair of games – both UCLA victories – due to an eye injury. During the Alcindor era, the Bruins posted an 88-2 record overall – 30-0 in 1967, 29-1 in 1968 and 29-1 in 1969.
UCLA dropped a 71-69 decision to the Elvin Hayes-powered Houston Cougars at the spacious Houston Astrodome in January 1968 that broke the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak.
Alcindor played poorly in the loss due to a blurred vision. He had been poked in the eye and suffered a scratched left eyeball in a previous assignment against California and the injury forced him to sit out back-to-back games against Stanford and Portland.
Hayes, the Cougars center who later earned national Player of the Year honors, scored 39 points and hauled down 15 rebounds while the injured Alcindor was held to just 15 markers in the first-ever nationally televised regular-season college basketball game.
UCLA’s only other defeat in the Alcindor era came during a 46-44 setback to the University of Southern California in the Big Fella’s senior season.
Alcindor earned a degree in history from UCLA in 1969. That same year, he was chosen by the Milwaukee Bucks with the first overall selection in the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft.
A former Catholic, Alcindor officially changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the summer of 1971 after leading the Bucks to their only NBA title thus far.
Abdul-Jabbar, who would later win five more NBA rings (1980-82-85-87-88) with the Los Angeles Lakers, will turn 67 on April 16.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Bandera. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.