PBA Opening 1987

PBA Opening 1987
Date : March 22, 1987
Location : University of Life Theater and Recreational Arena (ULTRA) in Pasig

List of PBA teams participated : 

Forumula Shell(Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation) - Reynaldo Marquez
Ginebra San Miguel(La Tondeña Incorporada) - Carlos Palanca III
Great Taste Coffee Makers(Consolidated Foods Corporation) - James Go
Hills Bros. Coffee Kings(G.F. Equity Inc.) - Wilfred Steven Uytengsu
Magnolia Ice Cream Makers(San Miguel Corporation) - Jose C. Ibazeta
Tanduay Rhum Makers(Elizalde & Company Tanduay Distillers, Inc.) - Renato Reyes

PBA Muses 

Formula Shell - Pinky Amador
Ginebra San Miguel - Bing Loyzaga
Great Taste Coffee Makers - Tina Abad
Hills Bros. Coffee Kings - Joey Albert
Magnolia Ice Cream - Rachel Ann Wolfe
Philippine Team - Marichit Vergara
Tanduay Rhum Makers - Cassandra Romero

List of champions per conference

Open Conference Champion : Tanduay ( 4–1 ) coacehd by Turo Valenzona
Open Conference Runner-up : Great Taste

All-Filipino Conference Champion : Great Taste ( 3-0 ) coached by Baby Dalupan
All-Filipino Conference Runner-up : Hills Bros.

PBA-IBA Conference Champion : IBA All-Stars ( 1-0 ) coached by Ted Owens
PBA-IBA Conference Runner-up : Great Taste

Reinforced Champion : San Miguel (4-1 ) coached by Norman Black
Reinforced Champion Runner-up : Hills Bros.

It was a mix of blue blazers, green laser beams, Great Taste Coffee's brown and yel- low jerseys and later, the red faces of a Hill Bros. Coffee team terribly humiliated in its first outing as local basketball's 12- year-old circus, the PBA, tore the wraps off its 13th season before of a full house of some 12,000 fans that plunked a cool P243,000 to ogle the opening at the Uni- versity of Life arena in Pasig. Guests at the inaugurals were two standouts of other sports, world boxing champ Dodie Boy Penalosa and bowling queenpin Bong Coo, who shared the limelight with the gallery idols of the country's most popular spectator sport. Dodie Boy, the polio victim who conquered his infirmity to rise to the top of his division in world boxing, limped in to the cheers of the big crowd, while Ms. Coo, cool and pretty in a baby pink dress, glided in, also to the acclaim of the bas- ketball congregation to her seat of honor in the center of the hardcourt. By honoring Dodie Boy and Bong, the PBA paid tribute to a pair of champs who had done the country proud just a few weeks back Dodie for winning a world boxing crown and Bong for adding a still another world bauble to her collection.

As early as 12 noon, four hours before the actual start of the opening rites, there was a big crush of PBA fans that milled around the ticket booths of the ULTRA, hoping to be part of the inaugural crowd. Not all of them got in. And those who made it to the bleacher stands had to stand in long lines under the sweltering summer sun. As for those who were able to latch on to the few remaining tickets for the lower level and ringside seats had to pay it stiff, at least 200 per cent more to the scalpers, for their tickets. Tough, but that's the way it usually is everytime the curtains go up on a brand new PBA season.

"Let the games begin..." 
This was how the league's new chair- man of the board, a bespectacled Pilipinas Shell executive who was quickly nick- named "Sugar Rey" Marquez by program emcee Jolting Joe Cantada, sent the PBA's 1987 show on its way. Earlier, in his brief remarks, "Sugar Rey," who, like the other officers of the league showed up for the occasion in a blue blazer bearing the PBA's "coat of arms," said: "We look at 1987 as the start of the next dozen years when the PBA will go into adulthood fully equipped and prepared to meet its on-going commitment to stage competitions that will be a tri- bute to the skills of our top athletes while giving its public the unequalled excite- ment that only professional basketball is able to offer."

Eliciting as much attention as the teams with whom they trotted out under the starring the ageless Sonny Jaworski and import Michael Hackett, shuffled in. Equally as raucous was the acclaim that greeted the entry of Tanduay, the team that won two conference crowns last sea- son and stood on the brink of scoring a grand slam until it blew it all in the Open tournament.