Game 81: Toyota 112, Walk Tall 107 (March 16, 1980)

Robert Jaworski and imports Andy Fields and Bruce “Sky” King powered Toyota to victory over Crispa Walk Tall in the opener of the 1980 PBA season.

Toyota whips Crispa; Honda edges Tefilin

By Bert Eljera

Bulletin Today

Published Monday March 17, 1980

Toyota backed up its advantage in teamwork with sharp outside shooting by Robert Jaworski last night to roll back Crispa Walk Tall, 112-107, in the openers of the PBA first conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

Jaworski collected nine of his 22 points on hits from beyond the 22-foot marker for three-point field goals while Andrew Fields and Bruce “Sky” King outplayed the still adjusting Crispa duo of Glen Mosley and Sylvester Cuyler.

It was, however, the Jeansmakers’ inability to come out with clutch hits that finally decided the outcome of the exciting match played before some 20,000 fans.

The return of Danny Florencio (March 7-14, 1980)

After Almost Two Years In ‘Cooler’

THE RETURN OF DANNY FLORENCIO

Sports Weekly Magazine

March 7-14, 1980

One year and five months after he found himself in Dante Silverio’s cooler and eventually on his way out of the Toyota line-up, Danny Florencio finally made it back Friday night last week to the Araneta Coliseum, the scene of his greatest triumphs and biggest disappointments in pro basketball.

Danny’s comeback game was Toyota’s pre-season exhibition match with no less than the Tams’ arch rivals for league supremacy, the Crispa Redmanizers, now known as the Walk Tall Jeansmakers. The game was the nightcap of a benefit twinheader staged as part of of an ongoing campaign to raise funds for the forthcoming visit to the Philippines of Pope John Paul II.

As no doubt Danny had wished it, his “homecoming” to his old ballclub bore with it touches of those days when he was the bleacher crowd’s “nino bonito” and his being placed under preventive suspension by the then Coach Silverio had not placed yet his playing career under a cloud.