This Mumar shines off the court

THE LAST time I saw  him, he   was   still a  small  boy, shopping  for  pastries in  a  Greenhills bakeshop  with  his  mother.

The next  time  his  existence  streamed  into  my  consciousness     about  a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  he   was   signing  off   from  the  day’s  telecast  of  the NCAA games   where  he  was  one  of  the broadcast   panelists.

Has  time  flown  that fast?  It  didn’t  seem  too  long  ago  that  this  broadcaster’s  mother, Coney Reyes, and I  were rooting  for  the  same  Micaa team—Utex—where his   father, the  late Larry Mumar, was  playing.

That was   in  the  early 70’s    when Larry  and  Coney  were  just  newlyweds   and  their son, Laurence  Anthony or LA, wasn’t  even  born  yet.

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If LA  had  previously  been  unheard  of  in  basketball circles,  then  he  obviously   had  not   followed  in  his  father’s  footsteps.  Or, for  that  matter,    his grandfather’s,  the  legendary  Lauro “The Fox”  Mumar.

Larry  had  been  an  exemplary  player both in  the  amateurs  and in the PBA and  had donned  the  national  colors  many  times. But “The Fox,” a  contemporary  of  “The Big Difference” Caloy Loyzaga,  is  in  a  class of  his  own.

LA’s grandfather  was  a member of  the  national  team  to  the 1948 London  Olympics where we  finished  12th. He was also part of the  champion Asian Games  squad in  New  Delhi in 1953 and  the  champion  1954 Manila Asian Games quintet  where  he  was  the team  captain.

Mumar  also  played in  the  1954 World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil  where  the Philippines  salvaged  a  bronze  medal—our  highest  achievement  ever  in  the tournament now   known as the Fiba World  Cup.

Being  a member  of  such  an illustrious basketball  family,  I  figure  basketball  should  be  rushing  through LA’s  veins.

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LA  did try out   for  the Ateneo Blue Eagles  where he  was accepted  in Team A.

“Not  because  I  was  good  enough to play  for  the  Blue  Eagles though,  but  because  at  that  time,  Ateneo  was  very  strict on academics  and I  was  one of  the  very  few  who  could  combine  both athletics and  academics   with   success,” LA recalled. “My  biggest problem is  I  am  only 5-foot-7. And  perhaps I  really didn’t  have  the  skills  for  the  game,  just a  strong,  inborn  passion  for  it.  In  the  three years  that I played, the Blue Eagles  hardly  got off the  ground.  When I was cut  by coach Joe  Lipa,  they  soared,”  added LA, who  played alongside  Enrico Villanueva and Wesley Gonzales .

LA holds  a  degree  in  Development Studies. He  conducts  motivational seminars  for corporations. He   also  coaches the Lyceum  juniors in  the NCAA  and  does  sportscasting  on TV5. He  is  now  married  and  has  two kids.