Philippines wins basketball crown in the initial staging of 1951 Asian Games.

The 1951 Asian Games officially known as the First Asian Games, was a multi-sport event celebrated in New Delhi, India from March 4 to 11 1951. The Games received names like First Asiad and 1951 Asiad. A total of 489 athletes representing 11 Asian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 57 events from eight sports and discipline. The Games was the successor of the Far Eastern Games and the revival of the Western Asiatic Games. The 1951 Asiad were originally scheduled to be held in 1950, but postponed until 1951 due to delays in preparations. On 13 February 1949, the Asian Games Federation was formally established in Delhi, with Delhi unanimously announced as the first host city of the Asian Games. The games were rightfully held in New Delhi, India, the land of Mr. G.D. Sondhi, the person who really pushed for the realization of the quadrennial meet. The same breathe as the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin who’s efforts yielded the Modern Olympics in 1896. The Philippine The delegation, the country's smallest delegation ever, The Philippines sent 2 weightlifters, 12 basketball players, 8 swimmers and 9 track and field athletes.  They were accompanied by 4 officials, they were: Director Benito Pangilinan, Head of the delegation, Dr. Regino Ylanan, Business manager and Track & Field coach, Prof. Candido Bartolome, swimming coach and Dionisio Calvo, basketball coach. The Delegation won 19 medals in only four sports in swimming, basketball, athletics and weightlifting.

The Philippines achievement was one of the most productive ever in the past 11 stagings of the Asian Games considering the size of the delegation. There were no women athletes in the country's first Asian Games team. Three of the gold medals came in swimming, while high jumper Andres Franco and the mighty basketball team contributed the other two. Swimming also accounted five of the six silver medals and four of the eight bronze medals. The awesome basketball team reign as Asia's basketball power by ruling the basketball competition. Total medal haul of the Philippines was 5-6-8 including the basketball title.

In basketball, five Asian teams Burma, India, Iran, Japan, and Philippines participated. In the matches, the round-robin format was employed and on the basis of final points table top three podium places were decided. Philippines team without losing a single match topped the points table and grabbed a gold medal, Japan team finished behind it and won a silver medal, Iranian team with two wins finished third and won a bronze. Host nation India, finished fourth with only single win over Burma, which came last without winning a single match.

The line-up were : 
1.  Lauro Mumar
2.  Luis Lorenzo 
3.  Francisco Calilan 
4.  Antonio Martinez 
5.  Jose Gochongco,
6.  Andres dela Cruz
7.  Meliton Santos
8.  Genaro Fernandez 
9.  Mariano Tolentino
10. Ignacio Ramos
11. Rafael Hechanova
12. Carlos Loyzaga

Philippines won over Burma 63-19, Iran 65-41, Japan 57-33 and India 86-36 with an average of 67.75 pts per game and 35.5 lopsided lead. 

From Pinoy Miler/Wikipedia/ Sports Weekly Magazine/Sports Flash/Champ 80s