Happy Birthday, Richard “Dicky” Bognot ( June 24 )

Happy Birthday, Richard “Dicky” Bognot

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

1990 PBA Rookie Draft 5th overall pick
Letran Knights forward
2x PBA champion

Richard Bognot, the Swift player. Richard is one player who has no airs about him, who treats others with utmost courtesy, and who is not inclined to tell the world about his hardcourt accomplishments. Too, he is one player who is completely devoted to his family, a family he wants to nurture and be with all the time.
"My greatest wish for my children is to see them finish college," he says with sincerity. Richard, and wife Myrna (nee Mallari), have two children, Myca Antonette, 7 years; and Ralph Anthony, 5 years. Myca is schooling at St. Paul Pasig. Richard and Myrna both hail from Bacolor, Pampanga; in fact, they were classmates in the elementary grades and were neighbors. The education of the children is one responsibility that parents could consider before all others. And Richard and Myma believe so. And both believe too that the children must get the education that the best school can offer. Perhaps this belief, this perception is a legacy of a townmate who laid a great premium on education. That townmate of theirs was the late philanthropists, Don Honorio Ventura. Don Honorio once took under his wings a poor bright man who was struggling for an education. With the help of Don Honorio, the young men took up law, topped the bar examinations, became a congressman, then Vice President, and finally President of the Philippines. That man was Diosdado Macapagal. In Bacolor, Don Honorio is honored with a school named after him. It was here that Myrna took her secondary education. Richard, however, If Bognot can be just as assertive and aggressive like Benjie Paras, he can provide Shell the much needed control of the rebounding territory aside from giving Paras the much needed relief in the slot. Give Bognot some more time and he'll metamorphose into the kind of PBA star he has not dreamed of.