By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
He was not a Philippine Basketball Association superstar but he was a star nonetheless. He played 11 long years, six of which he spent with the Crispa team. This team, together with Toyota, dominated the PBA in its first 10 years of existence that started in 1975.
He was fondly called Kojak, in reference to a bald and popular TV police character in the US. He was the first bald-pated baller in local professional hoopsdom. He served one term as a councilor of Caloocan City and three consecutive terms as Vice mayor of the same city, first under Mayor Malonso then Mayor Erice.
His name: Luis Tito Varela, popularly known as Tito Varela. Although he was not mentioned in the same breath as his famous teammates like Atoy Co, Bogs Adornado, Abet Guidaben, Philip Cezar and Alfredo Hubalde, he was a vital cog in the defensive wall of the Crispa team. This great team authored the first two grandslams ever and Varela was in both. Varela’s exemplary on-court behavior earned him the Sportsmanlike award of the PBA in 1979. Few people know that Varela was the 6th PBA player- after Jaworski, Co, Arnaiz, Fernandez, Paner-to become a product endorser. This is a testament of his character and stability as a player.
His demeanor actually was endearing to basketball fans. This was unmistakably displayed in 1978, in an exhibition game in the Visayas involving Crispa against the rest of the PBA stars. Varela was one of the 4 most applauded and popular stars. He stamped his versatility as an athlete the following year during a Supergames (actually a trackfest) participated in by 58 elite athletes from at least 20 different sports, plus movie stars. By then, PBA stars were already being treated much like actors and actresses (even more so, now). He proved his mettle by placing 3rd overall in individual events.
Those accomplishments of Varela should place him among the next best 40 players, if chosen today, after the original 40 PBA players meticulously selected by a respectable panel just recently.
After his 11 active playing days in the PBA, Varela had chosen a career where angels, I mean other popular basketballers, dared not to tread. They thought it beyond their dignity to officiate in the league where they used to reign supreme. Not Varela. He became a PBA referee, one of only two (the other is Ernie De Leon-another Crispa player) veteran players who did so.
I asked him why. He said in all humility, that it was possible for him to do that because he was not considered a superstar, and that basketball fans did not look at him with so much scrutiny. He admitted that he himself had at least two boiling run-ins with referees in his playing days that’s why he initially wondered what he is doing as a hardcourt policeman. Fact is, at the time he was prevailed upon to try refereeing by then PBA Commissioner Atty. Rudy Salud, game-fixing was commonplace in the league. Atty. Salud wanted to rid the league of it. He counted on the help of Varela to accomplish it. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Salud, the PBA, the first professional basketball league outside of the United States, was cleaned of such shenanigans. Needless to say, it flourished tremendously as we see it now.
Varela served for 13 years as PBA referee. He claimed that he earned more as referee than as a player. His association with the PBA allowed him to finance the college education of all his 4 children who all got their respective degrees.
Varela was short of one year to finish his course at the University of the East, all because of basketball. He needed to provide for his siblings and his family. His advice though to aspiring basketball players, is to finish first their college degrees to back them up when they are no longer earning from their basketball careers. He mentioned several PBA superstars who had to leave for the U.S. to earn a living as they can not land decent jobs here befitting their former idol status. They simply did not earn their degrees. They scrounge for a living in the U.S. by being employed in menial jobs without being embarrassed by people who used to idolize them. It is this idea that prompted him to insist on his son, who is tall and a good ball player, to finish his course. At the beginning, his son felt bad about it, but now, his own was so grateful about it.
According to Varela, the most successful of all PBA commissioners was Atty R. Salud because no owner was able to dictate on him. He was not receiving his salary from the league, that’s why. Presently, it may be possible that PBA club owners can dictate on the Commissioner, especially those who own more than one ball club. Owning more than one team, in itself, is against the league rules according to Kojak.
During Salud’s time, small guys in the PBA are taken cared off; players and refs are protected; and refs had one-year contracts. Now, according to Tito, refs could be out of the cold anytime. No security of tenure.
He laments the fact that the PBA players association had become inutile, making their after-PBA life a big question mark.
Varela was into psycho cybernetics (a science that deals with the steering of one’s mind into productive and useful goals). Little wonder that he was successful both as a player and referee. Being recently retired also as a referee, he now busies himself as aerobics instructor and trains interested people to become basketball referee. He will be conducting seminars for aspiring referees here in Baguio within the next two months. One could learn a lot from Mr. Clean. If interested, this glitterman could be contacted.
