Loyzaga first Pinoy in FIBA Hall of Fame

For the first time, a Filipino was named to the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Carlos “Caloy” Loyzaga, a bronze medalist in the 1954 FIBA World Championship and a 4-time Asian Games gold medalist, was posthumously inducted as a member of the 2023 Hall of Fame class, in an announcement on FIBA’s Facebook page on Friday. He died in 2016, aged 85.

Known as the “Big Difference”, Loyzaga is the first Filipino to be named into this year’s Hall of Fame class by the FIBA.

The 2023 FIBA Hall of Fame class with Philippine basketball legend Carlos ‘Caloy’ Loyzaga (center left). PHOTO FROM FIBA FACEBOOK PAGE 

Loyzaga’s daughter, Teresa, welcomed the news, by saying that the wait is over.

“I am so Proud of my Dad. Carlos ‘Caloy’ Loyzaga. I miss you. I LOVE you!!!” she wrote.

During the 1954 FIBA World Championship, Loyzaga and the Philippine national team placed 3rd in the tournament, at the time the highest placing Asian country. He was also a member of the tournament’s Mythical Five.

Apart from the four Asian Games gold medals won between 1951 and 1962, he also won two FIBA Asia championships as a player in 1960 and 1963 and as a coach in 1967.

His number 14 was posthumously retired by his collegiate team, the San Beda Red Lions, in 2016.

Along with Loyzaga, Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming, Japanese basketball coach Yuko Oga, France women’s national basketball coach Valerie Garnier, Italian basketball coach Alessandro Gamba, Australian women’s basketball star Penny Taylor, Indonesian basketball star Sonny Hendrawan, Angolan star Ângelo Victoriano, multi-awarded Spanish player Amaya Valdemoro, Georgian Olympic gold medalist Zurab Sakandelidze, and Wlamir Marques, who is one of Brazil’s greatest basketball players of all time.

Loyzaga and all the other inductees will formally be recognized in a ceremony before the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Manila.