SCORE

What’s a score? A written representation of a musical composition forwards the musically inclined. For historians, twenty.

Remember the first two lines of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (there were five known copies) he delivered in 1863, thus: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

A score years after the inaugurals of the Modern Olympic Games (Athens 1896) they were shelved because of World War I. The Games of the VI Olympiad were slated at the capital of Germany, a member state of the Central Powers, also known as Quadruple Alliance ranged against the Allies.

 A score years after the turnaround (Antwerp 1920), the Games of the XII Olympiad scheduled in Tokyo in 1940 were not held because of WW II. The Empire of Japan was one of the three leaders of the Axis powers. The combatants on the other side, the Allies, included the Philippines.

A score and four years passed before Tokyo finally hosted the Games. In the 1964 Games, boxer Anthony Villanueva gave PHI her first silver medal. A score and dozen years earlier, boxer Jose Luis, Anthony’s father, was a member of the PHI triumvirate of bronze medalists in Los Angeles in 1932.

Four years short of two scores after ranking fifth in the debut of basketball in Berlin 1936 despite her sole defeat by the United States, PHI bid adieu to its Olympic campaign also in Germany, Munich 1972 where she ended up tying her Games worst--13th place -- identical to her finish in Mexico 1968. PHI’s Berlin 1936 showing has been the best of any Asian country.

Munich 1972 also saw the USSR ending the USA’s reign in the eighth staging of Olympic basketball in a controversy-marred match.

Aged a year short of a score, an American swimmer born in the Philippines made a splash in Munich in 1972. Karen Patricia Moe who would be inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame a score years after clinched the 200m butterfly gold rewrote both the Olympic and world records.

A score of years separate PHI’s clinching her last two Olympic medals—both silvers. In Atlanta 1996, boxer Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco missed the gold yet improved on the bronze-medal showing of his brother Roel in Barcelona 1992. In Rio de Janeiro 2016, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz redeemed herself from her back-to-back dismal Olympic engagements (Beijing 2008 and London 2012 where she was honored as PHI contingent flagbearer).

Three score years elapsed after PHI’s initial participation in the Olympic Art Competition when Jose Datuin romped off with the sculpture category grand prize and the $30,000 that went with it in Beijing 2008. Datuin’s work whose replica is prominently displayed at the Rizal Park was titled Dancing Rings and Colmo’s, Dreams for Goals.

PHI’s contestants in London in 1948 were a pair of artists -- Hernando R. Ocampo in painting and Graciano Nepomuceno in sculpture. Multi-faceted Ocampo (aside from being a self-taught painter he was also a playwright, fictionist, and editor) would rise to become a National Artist for Painting in 1991. Nepomuceno was a “santero” (icon maker) whose relief pieces adorn the Malacaňang Palace.

Two score years were in between the establishment of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF) in 1911 and the staging of the first Asian Games in 1951. PAAF representatives were among the founders of the Asian Games Federation (AGF) and its precursor, Far Eastern Athletic Association—Jorge Vargas in the former and Elwood Brown in the latter. The AGF formed in 1949 was in turn supplanted by the Olympic Council of Asia in 1981.

A score year passed from 1934 PHI’s hosting of the last Far Eastern Games, the first regional games in the world--inaugurated as Far Eastern Olympics—until she organized the 1954 Asian Games, the second.

Only score years were needed before PHI’s best performance in the Asian Games in 1954  morphed into her worst in the 1974 Asian Games, being shut out from the gold-medal column. The dolorous result hastened the creation the same year of the Department of Youth and Sport Development with President Ferdinand Marcos himself as the Secretary.

PHI’s bronze-medal finish in the 1954 FIBA Basketball World Championship complemented PHI’s landing in second place overall behind Japan in the second edition of the continental games.

That remarkable standing was converted after two years short of a score from PHI’s placing fifth in the debut of basketball in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where she suffered her only defeat at the hands of eventual champion United States. PHI’s positions in said tournaments, to date are yet to be equaled by any Asian country.

Over a score of years, Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno reigned supreme in four Bowling World Cups (1976, 1980, 1992 and 1996). Guinness Book of World Records cited these achievements. These feats formed part of the more than five score titles FIQ (International Bowling Federation) considered when he was declared International Bowling Athlete of the Millennium. The same year (1999) he received the IOC (International Olympic Committee) President’s Trophy--the highest sports award given to athletes who have excelled in their sport had extraordinary careers and created a lasting impact on their sport. Nepomuceno is the only bowler to have been handed said trophy.

Nepomuceno, along with Bong Coo, now PSC Commissioner, and 1987 Female Bowler of the Year Annette Hagre, composed the pioneering batch of enshrinees to the International Bowling Hall of Fame (IBHOF)in 1993. A score and five years later, he with Coo and Lita de la Rosa, both World Cup and FIQ World Champions, were inducted to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame (PSHOF). De la Rosa joined Nepomuceno and Coo in the IBHOF IN 2000.

It was only a score years after the Philippine Sports Commission was established in 1990 that PSHOF came into existence. King Caloy Loyzaga in his capacity and the RP Team that copped third in the 1954 World Basketball Championship were among the trailblazers to PSHOF.

By a score of years, the Cebu Sports Hall of Fame whose roll of honorees includes Lita de la Rosa and three members of the RP Team that copped the bronze medal in 1954 FIBA Basketball World Championships—Lauro Mumar, Ramon Manulat, and Napoleon Flores--even predated PSHOF.

Hosting rights for the III ISF (International Softball Federation) World Championships and FIBA World Championships were awarded in 1972. The former pushed through at the Marikina Sports Center. On account of the visa fiasco, the latter was canceled with Brazil taking over. A score years later, the VIII World Softball Championships took place at Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium and Pasig Softball Center.

Ex-Gov. Isidro Rodriguez and Eriberto Landero, president and secretary general of the Amateur Softball Association-Philippines for the longest time, emerged as the first Filipino administrators to be inducted into any International Sports Hall of Fame (1983 and 1995, respectively).

A score of years bookended the PHI lording it over in the Junior League Softball World Series (for girls aged 12-14 years) through Bacolod City which blanked Puerto Rico, 2-0, in the first in 2003. Bago City shut out Milford, Connecticut, 3-0, very recently in the other. Father and son (Ray and Francis Fuentes) mentored, respectively, the two nines. In between, Bacolod City and Norzagaray settled for silvers in 2006 and 2015.

Southpaw hurler Erika Arnaiz emerged as the greatest heroine as she struck out 85 batters, including 17 in the quarters and 15 in the finals. Her jersey #24 was retired by Little League headquarters at Williamsport, Pennsylvania for her feat.

Bago City’s notable sports figures include PHI’s first International Olympic Committee member Jorge Vargas (1936-1980) and siblings Roel and Mansueto Velasco (Barcelona 1992 bronze and Atlanta 1996 silver medalist, respectively.

PHI, on the strength of its runner-up finish in the 2013 FIBA Asia World Cup, came back in 2014 to the FIBA World Cup after an eight-edition hiatus. Gilas Pilipinas capped its campaign after four successive losses with a triumph against Senegal, an 81-79 overtime cliffhanger. It was PHI’s first win on the world stage in two score years.

Two score years after the creation of the Project: Gintong Alay in 1979, PHI pulled off her best performance ever in the Southeast Asian Games. In the 2019 Manila SEA Games, PHI dominated for the second time with her bumper harvest of 149 gold medals, 51 ahead of runner-up Vietnam. Her previous best of 112 (runner-up Thailand had 87) was posted in her third hosting six years less of a score earlier.

A score years after locking on her first gold medal in the 2003 SEA Games freestyle 51Kg class, wrestler Cristina Villanueva-Vergara and her daughter, Catelyn Gee Vergara, emerged as PHI’s first mother-and-daughter tandem medalists. The mother, a coach who turned substitute, sprang up as a golden girl for the third time (her second was in 2005), this time 14 kg heavier. The daughter swiped the bronze in the 59kg category on her initial try.

In 2007, after grasping a bronze, Cristina ended her playing career and moved on to coaching.