Ateneo-San Beda Rivalry: It Started and Ended in the NCAA

At some point, a rivalry is bound to happen and in some instances, the rivalries that we now know weren't the rivalries that our fathers and grandfathers used to witness back in the day. As a matter of fact, you would be surprised to see that some of the teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) had different rivals back in the day and in fact, Ateneo didn't start off as a team in the UAAP.

The Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles were among the founding members of the NCAA and while Ateneo's main rival in the UAAP nowadays is the De La Salle Green Archers, it didn't start out that way. Ateneo's main rival in the NCAA was none other than the San Beda College. La Salle also used to be a team in the NCAA since the league's inception in 1924 until 1980 when they withdrew from the league after a game against Letran which was followed by a riot which forced the league to call-off the game. 

Since founding the NCAA, Ateneo had won a total of 14 championships in the seniors' division- a record that the Red Lions would later break. And even though most sportswriters back in the day didn't write the Ateneo-San Beda rivalry as a fierce rivalry unlike those of the Ateneo-La Salle or even of the San Beda-Letran, the 1970s proved to be the fiercest point of the rivalry between the red and blue as both Ateneo and San Beda would go to face one another in the championship on multiple occasions. 

Both Ateneo and San Beda won a championship at the expense of one another during the 1930s and that pattern was disrupted La Salle scored an upset victory over 1939. The pattern of Ateneo and San Beda winning a championship or two against one another continued into the 1950s including back-to-back titles for Ateneo in 1957 and 1957 and was only stopped by San Beda taking the title back in 1959.  

And while the 1970s was indeed the fiercest chapter of the Ateneo-San Beda rivalry, it marked the beginning of the end of the said rivalry that led to Ateneo leaving the NCAA. Ateneo won another pair of back-to-back championships in the latter parts of the 70s. In fact, the 1977 championship was a controversial one as Game One was followed by a brawl which forced the league to hold Game Three behind-closed-doors and yes, San Beda won the game after the officials ruled that Ateneo's last shot attempt was no good. 

Recently, Ateneo beat the Red Lions for the Philippine Collegiate Champions' League (PCCL) championship and they had their battles in the past PCCL tournaments among others, their rivalry has no longer the same intensity it once had when both teams were in the same league. Nobody would know what the Philippine basketball would look like right now if Ateneo didn't leave the NCAA and stayed as San Beda's main rivals. Nobody would be able to tell how dominant San Beda would be right now if Ateneo stayed put. 

Photo is from Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias