Ilonggo football legend to be inducted in PHL Sports Hall of Fame

The legendary Ilonggo footballer Paulino Alcantara will be inducted in the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame (PSHOF), according to a PNA report.

Alcantara was a part of the Philippine team that thrashed Japan, 15-2, in the 1917 Far Eastern Championship Games, the predecessor of the Asian Games, by far the Philippines’ biggest win in the international football circuit.

He was also one of FC Barcelona’s first superstars, leading the current La Liga Santander powerhouse to six Copa Del Rey titles during the 1910s and 1920s while also becoming the club’s youngest scorer at age 15.

Born in 1896 to a Filipino mother and Spanish military officer father, Alcantara was raised in Iloilo in the Spanish-ruled Philippines around the same time that football was taking shape there.

In recognition of his contributions to Philippine football, the Philippine Football League even mounted and named a tournament in his honor, the Copa Paulino Alcantara which is sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation.

Apart from Alcantara, the other inductees are basketball’s “Living Legend” Robert Jaworski, who won multiple championships in the collegiate, professional, and national team ranks.

Jaworski also became the symbol of Ginebra’s “never-say-die” attitude that has become the Philippine Basketball Association team’s mantra until today.

Also making the list is long jump queen Elma Muros-Posadas.

Posadas won eight Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medals in the event alone while winning seven more in athletics.

Rounding out the headliners are Eric Buhain, a 13-time SEA Games gold medalist in swimming; Olympic bronze medal-winning boxers Leopoldo Serrantes and Roel Velasco; fellow Olympians Rogelio Onofre (athletics) and Gertrudes Lozada (swimming); champion bowler Arianne Cerdeña; and champion diver and basketball player and coach Dionisio Calvo.