NCAA readies elaborate opening rites

THE NCAA will honor late basketball great Carlos “Caloy” Loyzaga when it stages an elaborate opening ceremony to usher in its 92nd season Saturday at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The league will retire Loyzaga’s jersey No. 14 that he wore during his days playing for San Beda in the 1950s in the program billed as “Avant” and conceptualized by director Roxanne Lapus.

Considered as the greatest Filipino basketball player of all time, Loyzaga—who passed away early this year due to a lingering illness—led the Lions to the titles in 1951 and 1952, before embarking on a stellar international career highlighted by a bronze medal finish in the 1954 Fiba World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Caloy Loyzaga has made not just San Beda and NCAA but also the whole Philippines proud so it’s about time we return what he had done by honoring him with this,” said NCAA Mancom chair Jose Mari Lacson.

Also gracing the program are child star Alonzo Muhlach and Ogie Alcasid, who will sing the season theme song he also composed. Cedelf P. Tupas