No justice for the Islanders

2016 is an Olympic year, and it also marks the 80th anniversary of the first Olympic basketball tournament, which would be an even greater celebration if the Philippines somehow manages to beat very long odds to qualify. It has also been 80 years since our very first national team joined 22 other countries in that controversial first outdoor tournament in Berlin. The sport had been played in 1904 to introduce it to the world stage, but hadn’t really caught on yet. So it was with full trust that the team of brave little guys from the Philippine Islands traveled to Germany and were cheated out of a gold medal, at least a silver. Perhaps the injustice brought upon them by the organizers has been overshadowed by the magnitude of that particular Olympics: Hitler showcasing Aryan supremacy, Jesse Owens defiantly winning four gold medals, basketball inventor James Naismith handing out the medals in his sport, and Adi Dassler hand-making shoes for his countrymen before he became known to the world as adidas.

Who were these players who walked into the wolves’ den for the newly formed Basketball Association of the Philippines? Twenty-six year-old captain and practicing lawyer Ambrosio Padilla from the Ateneo de Manila, University of Santo Tomas standout Jacinto “Jumping Jack” Ciria Cruz (the team’s best athlete), San Beda College center Charlie Borck, Franco Marquicias, Blue Eagle Primitivo “Tibing” Martinez, Cebuano star Bibiano Ouano, Jesus Marzan, Amador Obordo, Fortunato Yambao, Miguel Pardo, Antonio Carillo and John Worell, a sub who happens to be a great-uncle of this writer. Coming from different social strata and family backgrounds, the players hardly knew each other. Some even professed outright dislike for one another. And they were coached by a drill sergeant in Chito Calvo.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the problems started at the organizational meeting two years earlier, after Hitler had come to power. The US, tied up with commercial leagues of its own (the predecessors of the NBA), and their threat of a boycott, was unable to attend the meeting setting all the rules. They didn’t know that you could only field seven players, and everyone had to have a maximum height of only 6’2”. This was a crucial detail, since the rules stipulated that a jumpball be held after every made basket, and with no shot clock, there weren’t that many baskets to begin with. Each possession was crucial, though you couldn’t tell because people read the newspaper while watching the games. But if you were leading and controlled the jumpball, you could basically dribble the entire game away.

Hearing reports of the persecution of Jewish athletes in Germany, former athlete and then president of the American Olympic Committee (AOC) Avery Brundage said: “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race.” Afraid that a boycott could become widespread, the Germans reacted by wooing Brundage, and some news stories implied he was somehow bribed to give his assent to go to the Games. After inspecting the facilities to be used for the Olympics, Brundage asserted that he thought Jewish athletes were being treated fairly, and changed his tune, and he wrote in the AOC’s pamphlet “Fair Play for American Athletes” that politics had no place in sports.

“The Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians.” He wrote in the AOC that American athletes should not become involved in the present “Jew-Nazi altercation”, Brundage said, implying that there was a “Communist conspiracy to keep the US from participating. Instead, America sent its largest delegation ever –  312 athletes.

Meanwhile, the Filipinos spent three tortuous weeks at sea on the way to France, where they vomited from seasickness, dropped one of their few basketballs into the ocean, had digestive problems because of the water and absence of rice, and felt homesick. Nevertheless, this was where they bonded, especially on the weeklong train trip from France to Germany. So you can imagine the gusto with which they faced their first game. The basketball competition was held from Aug. 7 to 14 on a dirt court made from converted tennis courts. The Philippines drew a bye in the first round. There were “No Jews Allowed” signs everywhere, proof that Brundage had not been entirely truthful after his inspection of the venues.

And so it was that the Americans in turn arrived with 14 players, twice as many players as allowed. Six of them from one commercial team alone, another five were from another team, and four were over the prescribed height limit, including 6’8” All-American Joe Fortenberry and another 6’7’ center. Incredibly, not only were all of them allowed to play, they were even allowed to form two teams who would play alternately, giving them a cushion against fatigue and injury. The other countries objected, to no avail.

Meanwhile, the Philippines was drawing quite a crowd, some as large as over 2,000. They escaped Mexico, 32-30, then blitzed European powerhouse Estonia 39-22. Then something strange started happening. The hard-to-please Germans were enamored of these dark, handsome strangers from this exotic land they had never heard of before. Giggly blonde, blue-eyed girls were handing them scented love letters during games. They were being invited to parties. The German press dubbed the team, “The Islanders”. These morenos and mestizos became rock stars of Hitler’s Olympics.

Then came the biggest injustice of all. Organizers realized that they had miscalculated the length of the tournament, and would be playing long after the Olympics had ended. In a hastily called meeting, they announced that the double-elimination format (which allowed two losses before your team was booted out), was now going to be a single-elimination system. Any loss from that point onward meant relegation to the consolation bracket, where your country would be playing for ranking. It just so happened that the Islanders’ next opponent was... the US. The Philippines lost to the taller Americans who controlled every jumpball and rebound, 23-56. It was the end of the road for the Islanders.

Despite being out of contention, the Islanders still drew crowds, winning their last two games and finishing in fifth place, to this day the highest Olympic placing of any Asian basketball team. The US went on to defeat Canada in a rainy, muddy finale, 13-8. Fortenberry the Goliath scored seven points. Mexico, which the Philippines had defeated before the format change, won the bronze medal. It must have been a long, lonely trip back home.

Is there any chance that this injustice can be rectified? Very unlikely. But there is a precedent. Jim Thorpe was wrongly stripped of his Olympic medals in the 1920’s. Sixty years later, they were given back to his family, and his grandson was one of those who carried the Olympic flag into Los Angeles Coliseum. But it would take a miracle for the Islanders to get their due, or receive any kind of recognition. Let us just remember their unrewarded pioneering work each time we send a team to an international tournament.