Crispa's title-clinching win over Toyota in the deciding fifth game of the 1975 PBA All-Philippine Championship was overshadowed by a pair of bench-clearing brawls. The Redmanizers' victory denied the Comets a rare grand slam.
Crispa wins, captures All-Philippine title
By Ding Marcelo
Bulletin Today
Published Monday December 15, 1975
Crispa-Floro vanquished arch-nemesis Toyota, 96-91, last night in a bruising, bloody encounter marked by two bench-emptying free-for-all sessions to win the All-Philippine Championship – the prized title of the infant Philippine Basketball Association.
Close to 40,000 spectators watched both excited and tormented as the two teams, overcome by passion and deep-seated emotion, chased each other with flailing fists across the court, once in the second quarter and again with only 35 seconds left in the game when Crispa was ahead, 96-91.
Oscar Rocha, a sophomore in the Toyota lineup, swung a right cross to Rodolfo Soriano’s faced early in the second quarter in precipitate the first riot that saw all benches emptied, the count at 27-18, in favor of the Redmanizers.
Philip Cezar somewhat blotted what otherwise was a splendid job when he punched Ramon Fernandez in retaliation for an elbow dug in this face when he drove off the Toyota ace for Crispa’s final basket of the evening. Again, all players of both teams swarmed into the court joined in by some fiercely partisan fans and it took another 10 minutes before complete order was restored.
