MUCH journalistic ink has been spent on The Big Difference” or “The Great Difference” Carlos (Caloy) Loyzaga through the glory years of Philippine basketball in the 1950s and 1960s and even until today, a lot of sportswriters have taken time to write his immortal cage exploits that propelled the country to the top of the Asian scene and, in some instances, to creditable finishes at the world level.
Loyzaga, after all, is the greatest basketball athlete ever produced by the country. Still, there were other legendary figures that caught the attention of avid local hoop fans before Loyzaga came out hogging the limelight with his brilliant and dominating performances.
One of them was Olympian Lauro (The Fox) Mumar. Mumar, a wily 6-foot-1 frontliner, attended San Carlos College (now the University of San Carlos) in Cebu City before moving over to Manila to play for the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights, where he bannered the much-dreaded “Murder, Inc.” team that romped away with the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) title in 1950.
Mumar also starred for Manila Ports Terminal, which grabbed the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA) championship during his time. The MICAA was the harbinger of the professional Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) circuit, which first saw the light of day in April 1975.
Internationally, “Bay” Mumar donned the Philippine national team colors on four occasions. He was a member of PH Olympic team that placed 12th in the 1948 London Games, counting brothers Felicisimo and Gabriel Fajardo and Ramon Campos Jr. as among his teammates.
In 1951, in New Delhi, India, Mumar joined Loyzaga on the Philippine contingent that snared the first of four straight men’s basketball gold medals in the Asian Games.
In 1954, in the same Asian Games in Manila, he and Loyzaga again joined forces to lead the Filipinos to another gold-medal finish. That same year, Mumar skippered the Philippine team that ranked third in the World Basketball Championship (now known as the FIBA World Cup) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mumar hit at a 9.9-point clip while Loyzaga emerged as the Pinoys’ leading scorer and was voted to the tournament’s five-man Mythical Team. Mumar eventually turned to coaching not only in the local commercial leagues but also in the international front.
His singular stint as the PH head mentor came during the 1969 Asian Basketball Confederation tournament (now known as FIBA Asia Championship) in Bangkok, Thailand, where the Filipinos settled for third place.
Among the players who played under Mumar in the Bangkok sojourn was Bay’s own son, Lawrence, a lean, left-handed guard with a mean perimeter-shooting touch. The 5-foot-11 Larry starred for the University of Santo Tomas in the UAAP.
In the early seventies, the older Mumar traveled to India to teach the game to the new kids on the Asian block. In gratitude, the Indians made him their national team coach as well.
Mumar thus played a pivotal role in India’s subsequent growth in men’s basketball in the Asian region.