![A heated rebound battle between Crispa’s Rodolfo Soriano and Toyota’s Oscar Rocha captures the intensity of their fabled rivalry during their April 17, 1977 clash. Crispa edged Toyota, 122-121, but the night ended in chaos as a post-game brawl broke out involving players and spectators.[Photo credit: Bulletin Today / April 19, 1977]](http://sportsbytes.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_0232-scaled.jpg)
[Photo credit: Bulletin Today / April 19, 1977]
There have been several “basketbrawls” in the 50-year history of the Philippine Basketball Association, but none was more vicious and violent than the one that happened on April 17, 1977.
It came on a Sunday night when the PBA, Asia’s oldest professional league, kicked off its third season, an All-Filipino Conference doubleheader at the Araneta Coliseum that featured fierce rivals Crispa and Toyota in the main fare.
The Redmanizers edged the Tamaraws, 122-121, all right, following a technical free throw by Crispa in the dying seconds to shatter a 121-all deadlock. But it was the after-the-game melee that provided some of the darkest moments in Philippine basketball history.
Before that, tension had already arisen, and it was exacerbated when a technical foul was called against Toyota head coach Dante Silverio with the score all even at 121-all and only three seconds left on the game clock.
Then a full-scale brawl erupted after the game. It marked the first time that players involved in a rumble were arrested and detained by the military.
The hotly contested contest was marred by a post-game rumble at the Big Dome dugout involving players from both sides that triggered another melee involving their fans.
What got the ire of many was the referees’ decision to call a technical foul on the Tams’ bench strategist Dante Silverio for having only four men on the floor with only three seconds left and the count deadlocked at 121-all.
Minutes after the game, a total of 21 players from both Crispa and Toyota were brought to Camp Crame on orders of Metrocom chief Prospero Olivas due to the post-game brawl.
With the country under martial law, the players were forced to spend the night together at the Fort Bonifacio military stockade before being released around seven the following morning.
The Metrocom had placed the 21 players under indefinite suspension for having figured in the post-game riot that left scores injured.
Arrested and detained at Fort Bonifacio were Francis Arnaiz, Robert (Sonny) Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Virgilio Cortez, Jesus Sta. Maria, Oscar Rocha, Aurelio Clarino, and Rodolfo Segura from Toyota; and Philip Cezar (now running for mayor in the City of San Juan), Alberto Guidaben, Reynaldo Franco, Gregorio Dionisio, Reynaldo Pages, Cristino Calilan, David Cezar, Armando Torres, Rudolfo Soriano, Fortunato (Atoy) Co Jr., Luis (Tito) Varela, Bernard Fabiosa, and Alfredo Hubalde from Crispa.
Orlando Bauzon and Fortunato Acuna (who marked his 77th death anniversary on April 17) escaped the dragnet, though.
The melee saw thousands of bleacher fans spilling into the hardcourt in what remains the wildest-ever free-for-all brawl in PH cage history.
The players were first invited for questioning at Camp Crame in Quezon City before being packed off aboard Harabas-type military vehicles bound for Fort Bonifacio.
The melee left Soriano, Franco, Jaworski, Segura, and Fernandez nursing nasty cuts and lumps in different parts of their bodies.
Eyewitnesses said several other people were injured, including a lady ringside spectator who was hit on the waist by an empty soft drink bottle hurled from the bleachers section.
Because of the post-game skirmish, then-PBA commissioner Leopoldo (Leo) Prieto meted out Crispa and Toyota a fine of P5,000 each.
Silverio was fined P1,000 after he was found guilty of cussing a referee following the technical foul he received from referee Estefanio Bernos in the final three ticks of the game.
The infamous post-game fracas was one for the books in Philippine basketball annals, as the players involved in such an incident were arrested and brought to a military stockade.
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