I came to like basketball
game when I was about nine yearsyoung. On several occasionwhile playing at the
Tigbauanplaza, I see big, tall playersamong them were Jose Hilado,Salvador
Hilado,Ramon Tueres Sr., Jose Canto Sr.,Rafael Canto, Leopoldo Travina Sr.,Enrique
Tavarro. That was longtime ago about the years oflate fifties. During those
years,there were no hook shots, noback dribble.In front of the presentTigbauan
municipal buildingthere used to be a rough anddusty basketball court. Twococonut
posts were planted north and south about 25 yards between each post. The boards
were made of wood andpainted white with three capital letters written in black
paint,"TAC" meaning Tigbauan Athletic Club.According to former
Tigbauan Mayor Celso Ledesma, the TAC organization was founded in 1936 and the
founders wereManuel Tabalada Sr., LeopoldoTravina, Sr., Epifanio Tuclaud,Ramon
Tueres Sr., SalvadorHilado, and Enrique Tavarro.
In the early fifties,
talentedyoung players from TigbauanHigh School ( THS ) emerged.Among the stars
that shineEvery brightly were; Jose Tras-porto, Alex Gayamat, Rudy Tulaiba,
Johnny Hilado, and Antonio Aldon. This players captured the Championship Trophy
"S W I P S A L" meet – South Western Iloilo Public SchoolsAthletic
League, now calledFCDSA-First Congressional
While Tigbauan basketball starscontinue to shine in the
provinceof Iloilo, there were teams fromother towns that visits our placeon
weekends. I can still remembera team from Fundidor, Iloilo whichmostly on every
other weekendscomes to Tigbauan to play ourTAC "Our Fathers " team-
TACSeniors. One of the players fromFundidor can shoot and sink theball into the
basket without looking at the boards or the ring.His name was "MOW
HAT". Oneday, one of our TAC player "Piniano Teruel" tried to
imitatethe Fundidor player shooting theball without looking at the ring,fortunately,
Piniano Teruel sankthe ball to the basket. That ledto naming Piniano Teruel as"
Piniano (Mowhat) Teruel. At thepresent time, you can see MowhatTeruel not in
the basketball courtbut as referee in the cockfightingarena (Bulangan) in
Tigbauan.During the mid-fifties, TigbauanHigh School Team continues todominate
the entire first districtof Iloilo. At the provincial meet inIloilo, the
municipalities of Tigbawan and Dumangas and the Pro-vincial High School, were
thetop contenders almost every year.Those were the times of the greatand famous
Iloilo player " MIKEBUENAFLOR" of Provincial High.Mike, a mascular,
heavy, tall andtalented player, controls the ball-game when he needs to win. Hewas
very powerfull during histimes. A star MVP type of aplayer. Tigbauan team sometimes beat Dumangas, but
never got a chance to beat the Provinial High.Our players did not give up hopefor
a provincial championship,they however tried and tried everyyear but to no
avail. Our playersgraduated from THS with highhope that someday Tigbauan canbeat
them.Fermin Trofeo Jr. was admitted to ISAT School, Antonio Aldonwent to
Manila, Ernesto Hiladoto Davao City, Pater Torrecampo,went somewhere in Iloilo,
RufinoTueres joined the Philippine AirForce, while Manuel Titular stayedin
Tigbauan.TAC organization produced threemore good players with potentialsfor
collegiate basketball. " MarioTugado", a lanky 5'11 Center,Pedro
Titular, 5'10 Guard, andPiniano (Mowhat) Teruel, 5'10Forward. These three
playerswere among the top names for College varsity basketall.Piniano (Mowhat)
Teruel was offered a job at 7up Bottling Co.which he accepted but later re-signed
and went somewhere outof Iloilo Province. Mario Tugado,and Pedro Titular,
became varsity players of (CPU) Jaro Central Philippine University.
Years later Mario Tugado and Pedro Titular landed a job in
oneof the Sugar Centrals in NegrosOccidental.
TAC made a lot of progress indeveloping more players like
"BienTrofeo, Reynaldo (Bodoy) Librodo, Rolando Tavarro, Remegio (Meme)Calasara,
Benjamin (Nonoy) Segovia,Ramon Tauro Tueres, Romeo Aldon,Serafin Teruel, Luis
Teruel Gonzales,Luis Aldon, Nestor Taleon, ErmeloTuvida, Miguel De Los Santos
andJoselito Tejero. " Remegio Calasara,was offered to play for VCC-Visa-yan
Central College for PRISAA Ilo-ilo meet. He accepted the offer butunable to
play due to residencyproblem. Upon graduation from THS,some players went to
college, othersjoined the Philippine Air Force. Ro-lando Tavarro was accepted
to playfor UP-Iloilo.
TAC organization kept on producingmore and more players.
Also duringthe mid-fifties, a new breed of midgetplayers emerged again with new
styleof playing. These children were con-centrated to team plays and teamcoordination.
This midget team wascalled " The Group" and their teamcaptain was the
eagle eyed "Nelson(Doding) Taleon. Team members wereErnesto Gonzales,
Isidoro Tumim-bang, Romeo Cayetano, Donato Dy(Kaisek), Ner Torilla, Bernie
Hilado,Edgardo Velez, and Armando Caman-dillo. I was at that time in a diffe-rent
team with Nestor Ledesma, Nestor Tenefrancia, Ticoy Titular, AdanTuvilla, Our
team cannot get any winin every game that we played againstthe "Group
Team". One summer time,a team from Iloilo City, "ColumbianSquires"
came to Tigbauan to play against our midget players. Tigba-uan selection was
conducted beforethe game, luckily, my name was in-cluded in that selection
along withthe "Group" players. Pedro Titularwas named Coach for the
midgets.We played against the Iloilo Teamand we won. That was a verymemorable
moment in my basketball life.
