WELCOME TO ALAMAT: LEGENDS OF PHILIPPINE SPORTS! This blog recalls the greatest moments in Philippine sports and the glorious athletes of yesteryears, both celebrated and unsung, who animated the sports arenas, here and around the world, with their show of strength, endurance, resilience and national pride.
Ever since the age of organized sports, Filipinos have been competing for God, country and personal glory with varying degrees of success. Before that, the only competitive game known in the country was the noncontact sport of “sipa”- where a small bamboo ball kicked back and forth between 2 lines of players. Another leisure game popular in rural areas was ‘sabong’ or cockfighting.
It was during the American Regime that
sports came into full flower, deeming it essential to keep the people of their
new territory physically and morally fit. An American soldier introduced
baseball in 1899, gaining such wide popularity—until basketball took over.
Taught through the school system, basketball was an instant hit.
Filipinos took to these sports not only for leisure, but also to assert their nationalism, as they competed against their taller, heavier opponents.
By 1913, sports was making rapid advancements in the country. “In no other part of the world has physical education and recreation made such remarkable progress in so brief a time as in the Philippines”. Manila YMCA director Elwood S. Brown observed. The Bureau of Education reported that 400,000 Filipino children are engaged in some form of activity. There were “hundreds of baseball teams, leagues in many kinds of sports, frequent track and field meets, …and an Amateur Athletic Federation that promoted competitive athletics in the community..”
Americans organized athletic meets of all sorts, beginning in schools and in national events like the annual Manila Carnival that began in 1908. The 2-week fair held sports competitions for participating schools and government bureaus, that included disciplines like athletics and swimming events.
There were regular Army Athletic meets known as McKinley Games that had a mix of American and Filipino participants, who competed in separate divisions. The major meet, held at Fort McKinley, included Aquatics (swimming), Track and Field (sprint and long distance running, pole vault), Ball Games (baseball, basketball), and Boxing. The annual meet that began in the 1920s, is credited with developing athletics in the country.
The performance standards of Filipino
athletes leveled up as they began pitting their skills against their
counterparts from other countries. From regional athletic meets, they found
their way representing the Philippines in the earliest international sports
competitions that would of course, come to include the premier and most celebrated
sporting events in the world--the Olympics.
SOURCES/ CREDITS:
Elwood S. Brown, Athletics in the
Philippines Islands and the Far Eastern Olympic Games
McKinley Games, The Tribune, Sports
Page, 19 Dec. 1931.
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