Remembering the man in white

LOOKING AT photos from the Manuel L. Quezon era or what older folk would call “peace time,” I am fascinated by the men dressed in white suits. How could we dress that way given our humidity? Was it because we had less pollution back then?   I asked a few historians and sociologists about this and they said that the men dressed that way in public because it was a “Sunday’s best” ensemble—immaculate white coat, shirt, pants and shoes and a simple dark colored tie for contrast.   The late basketball coach Tito Eduque was the most prominent man in white I knew.   White was his color of choice and he was always dapper in his Sunday’s best on the sideline, the golf course or at the Triple V restaurants he helped put up. He didn’t wear the white suits of the pre-war era but had white long sleeved shirts and sportswear. He even had a white golf bag when he was on the fairway.   Eduque was a star player for the De La Salle Green Archers and coached them for several years in the NCAA. He played for commercial squads and the national team and, later on, coached the national squad and several PBA teams. Eduque passed away in 2001, after a full and colorful life in sports and business.   For the last 24 years, Eduque’s birthday in August has been remembered with a fun-filled but competitive golf dual meet between the sports media and a Kamayan side made up of Eduque’s family and friends.  The 10 best individual scores of each side are put together for the team total. At the Aguinaldo layout last Tuesday, the Kamayan golfers got back at the media squad after the sports chroniclers ended a long slump last year.   At lunch after the golf, everyone recalls delightful stories about the man in white.  And it was through stories that I got to know Eduque.  Twenty-five years ago, the late Romy Kintanar and sportswriter Boy Manuel introduced me to Eduque when Saisaki just opened.  Eduque would wait for the PBA folk coming from the games at the restaurant on Edsa to talk hoops as sashimi and scotch mixed nicely.   Frank Deford recently wrote in Sports Illustrated that there was no better time in sports than when you were “The Kid.”  And I was that kid back then, in my first year doing PBA radio with Kintanar and Ed Picson later on. I listened to Manuel and Kintanar engage Eduque in MicaA, NCAA, Philippine team and PBA stories.    In time, I would ask him about the Philippine team that he coached—the 1973 ABC champions. He was amused that I had memorized the names and numbers of his players. I asked him about trying to stop Korean dead shot Shin Dong-pa or having Dave Regullano put his foot between the legs of Japanese sniper Masatomo Taniguchi before he went for a jumper.    I took in all his stories.  I wanted to learn everything about the basketball world and Eduque was among my first teachers. He gave this eager-beaver rookie his precious time and lessons on how to be a friend.  The only obstacle to a continuously told tale would be the endless stream of smiling well-wishers who would greet Eduque.  That was not unusual because friends and family relished seeing him.  Coach often asked, “Where were we?” so that he could complete a basketball story after the friend or relative left us.   At his wake nine years ago at La Salle Green Hills, I wasn’t surprised when former players and friends from La Salle and Ateneo and sports came in large numbers to honor him. And it’s no surprise as well why his friends and family continue to celebrate his joyful life every year with a golf tournament.  He was a man always at his Sunday’s best.