The Sports Section is one of my priority pages in reading newspapers even if I don’t play any sports. Nor do I understand the rules of any sports game.
But I love reading stories about triumph against odds of many athletes. I love reading about the values that sports nurture among athletes.
My collection of memorable quotes includes basketball great Michael Jordan’s “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
That’s why I was more enthralled with the photos of La Salle Taft turning blue after it lost the UAAP championship to Ateneo last Sunday than the final score (88-86) which indicated how heart-stopping the game was.
Lawyer Senen Y. Glinoga, Sr., both a product of La Salle and Ateneo (La Salle BSC ’58/Ateneo LLB ’63) shared with us this piece he wrote titled “The The Art of Losing”:
“Soon after the buzzer had sounded signaling the end of a highly emotional and tear-jerker UAAP basketball championship game last Sunday, La Salle’s mother campus along Taft Avenue was lit up in a strange color Blue, in lieu of the La Salle Green Archers’ own symbolic Green.
“The unmatched storied rivalry between the two schools dates back to an era long before both campuses opened their doors to the skirted ones.
“That gallant gesture initiated by no less than the president of La Salle was meant to be an acknowledgment of defeat and a salute to the Ateneo and its Blue Eagles—from the vanquished to the victor.
“La Salle’s accompanying simple heart-warming message reads: “We celebrate a good fight. We’re proud of you Green Archers. To the Blue Eagles, congratulations!”
“What a class act and display of character!
“That gesture in the midst of a disappointing loss brings to mind what the late learned Jesuit scholar and writer, Miguel A. Bernad, wrote in one of his writings: “ A very important lesson, a part of the preparation for life, is how to take defeat. To be magnanimous in victory is easy. To be gallant in defeat requires character.” How true!
“May such gallant gesture by La Salle and the timeless words of wisdom of a blue- blooded Jesuit serve as a timely guiding light for sports lovers , at a time when the spirit and sense of genuine and virginal sportsmanship have been dulled and tainted by the fixation with winning.
“This writer has set foot on both campuses, but, truth to tell, his heart turns green when it comes to the hardcourt battles.”
Glinoga was sports editor of a La Salle campus paper.He was a senior partner of ACCRALAW. He taught in Assumption Convent (one of his students was former President Gloria Arroyo).
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