Elorde, Villa, Loyzaga to be enshrined in RP Sports Hall of Fame

Boxers Gabriel “Flash" Elorde and Pancho Villa and cage great Caloy Loyzaga were once upon a time icons in Philippine Sports. Starting this year, they will be remembered as Hall of Famers.

Elorde, Villa, Loyzaga and his Circa ’54 squad that created a big stir in the World Basketball Championship will be enshrined to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame starting May 5 at the Manila Hotel.

They will be joined by six other athletes and a legendary basketball team to be named to the elite group this year.

The Philippine Sports Hall of Fame was created as enacted in the Republic Act 8757.
Also making it to the illustrious group were boxers Ceferino Garcia and Cely Villanueva and his son Anthony Villanueva, high jumper Simeon Toribio, hurdler Miguel White and swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso.

The 1954 RP five, a squad which Loyzaga carried to a bronze medal finish – the highest-ever attained by any RP team -- in Rio De Janiero, Brazil will also be enshrined.

Long before Manny Pacquiao, three Filipino boxers made their mark in the world stage.
There’s Elorde, who reigned for seven years as the World Boxing Council (WBC) super featherweight title starting in 1960 and was dubbed as the greatest Pinoy fighter before Pacquiao.

Villa was the first Filipino world champion winning the world flyweight crown in 1923, a plum he held until he abruptly died in 1925.

Garcia won 102 fights in his career, the most by any Filipino, and was the country’s only middleweight champion.

In amateur boxing, Cely Villanueva secured a bronze medal in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in the bantamweight division.

Thirty-two years later, her son Anthony gave the country its first silver medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Toribio captured a bronze medal in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and became a member of Congress after his athletic career.

White, a Filipino-American, came home with a bronze medal in the 400-meter hurdles event of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Yldefonso was the country’s first medalist as he won the bronze medal in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics but he died during the World War II. His grandson, Daniel Coakley, is a member of the RP national swimming team.

Loyzaga is the only Filipino named to the All-Star team of the FIBA World Championships.
The first batch of Hall of Fame members were picked from 43 nominees—both amateur and professional athletes—that were selected by a committee.