?Big Difference? Loyzaga back home for medical treatment
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 23 Feb 2011
Philippine basketball?s ?Big Difference? Carlos ?Caloy? Loyzaga is back in the country for medical treatment. Caloy?s eldest son, Commissioner Chito Loyzaga of the Philippine Sports Commission wouldn?t say what hospital his father is confined obviously to give him the privacy and rest he needs except to say that until yesterday, he is in he is in the Intensive Care Unit.
Asked if Caloy can receive visitors, especially by his contemporaries Chito answered in the negative.
The young Loyzaga, who along with younger brother Joey had also donned the national colors in many international competitions as well as in the professional league PBA, request though for prayers for Caloy?s early and speedy recovery.
The elder Loyzaga, a cinch for a berth in the list of ?100 Greatest Filipino Athletes? the Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines are honoring sometime in May in commemoration of the 100 years of organized sports in the country, has been based in Australia since leaving the local basketball scene some decades back.
For the uninitiated, Loyzaga earned the moniker ?The Big Difference? on the strength of his helping the Philippine teams win the Asian Games championship four times from the quadrennial conclave?s inception in 1951 in new Delhi until 1962 in Jakarta and a pair of Asian Basketball Confederation crowns from 1960 to 1968.
He was also the main man in the Nationals? third place finish in the 1954 World Champ9onship held in Rio de Janeiro where he was also named in the mythical selection, the only Filipino player so far to have accorded the distinction.
The Lauro Mumar-skippered National?s bronze medal finish is, up to the present time, the highest by an Asian country and surpassed another PHI team?s fifth place finish in the 1936 Olympic Games.
Just how big a difference did Loyzaga make in the country?s ?international campaign can be gleaned by the fact that after powering the Nationals to their title conquests, the Philippines lost its supremacy in the region.
A mainstay of multi-titled Yco, Caloy also helped the Painters to several Manila Industrial-Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA) plums and a record seven straight National Open diadems from 1954 to 1960.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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