Photo from PBA.ph
MANILA, Philippines — Former Olympian and Philippine basketball pioneer Orlando Bauzon passed away Saturday after suffering cardiac arrest, the PBA reported on its official website. He was 75.
A steely defender out of University of Santo Tomas, Bauzon represented the Philippines in the 1968 Mexico Olympics and was part of the Toyota Comets club when the PBA came into existence in 1975.
Bauzon helped the Delta Motors franchise to back-to-back titles that same year but the club failed to complete the Grand Slam after Crispa derailed their run to capture the All-Philippine Cup.
Ramon Fernandez, the league’s first four-time MVP, and Gil Cortez, the PBA’s inaugural top rookie, were among Bauzon’s Toyota teammates who fondly remembered the 6-foot guard.
Cortez said Bauzon was a “close friend throughout the years” and that he was “quiet, gentle, and unassuming.”
Fernandez, meanwhile, remembered Bauzon’s clutch shot in Toyota’s first Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association tournament after he drilled the game-winner that sent the Comets in the finals where they eventually beat Concepcion Motorolas for the title.
Bauzon played three seasons with Toyota and won three titles before going to Mariwasa in 1978 and eventually retiring.
Apart from the Olympics, Bauzon also represented the Philippines in the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok, the 1967 Asian Basketball Confederation in Seoul where the Filipinos regained the crown after defeating the host’s legendary shooter Shin Dong-pa and the South Koreans in the finals.
Bauzon dabbled into coaching after his playing career, handling alma mater UST, University of the Philippines, and Adamson University, which he led to the 1992 UAAP finals before losing to Far Eastern University and Johnny Abarrientos.
The former Philippine international was married to the late Josie Bauzon, the first female Philippine Sports Commissioner.