MANILA, Philippines—Former Olympian Narciso Bernardo will be laid to rest today at the Mandaluyong Catholic Cemetery after a 2 p.m. Mass at the Namayan Chapel.
Bernardo, who was inducted to the basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, died Tuesday. He was 71.
The former National University star player served the Philippine team for more than 10 years, starting in 1960 when he saw action in the first ABC and Rome Olympics. In 1972, at 35, Bernardo became a member of the last RP team that played in the Olympics.
Among the highlights of his career on the international stage was his 25-point output against South Korea in the 1967 ABC tournament, which the Philippines ruled. Bernardo was named to the tournament’s mythical five.
Former Olympian and Asian Games veteran Emilio “Jun” Achacoso, one of the Yco players who guarded Bernardo in the heydays of the Yco-Ysmael rivalry, calls the Ysmael forward a “a scoring machine.”
Boni Escoda, Contributor
