Arriba!
The Colegio de San Juan de Letran is known for a lot of things, from its deep history after having stood for 402 years now to its Dominican preaching through education and to the weight it puts on athletics.
Letran, with its athletic squad being called the ‘Knights’ for men’s team and ‘Lady Knights’ for their women counterparts, first joined the league in 1928 and would stay for six years before temporarily leaving in 1933.
The school then rejoined in 1936 where they helped run the league alongside Ateneo, La Salle, Jose Rizal College, Mapua Institute College, and San Beda College after some original members left.
Since then, Letran has been a household name in the league.
Championship pedigree
The Intramuros-based squad has taken home the general championship to Muralla 17 times—the third-most in the league—nine of which were in the seniors division while the eight came from the juniors division.
Letran has also emerged as one off the most successful basketball programs with 30 overall titles, 18 of those coming in the men’s tournament.
They have won two memorable titles in the last few seasons, the first coming Season 91, where a team led by Kevin Racal and 5-foot-5 Mark Cruz ended San Beda’s five-peat dynasty in a tight overtime victory in a do-or-die Game 3.
The Knights also earned the right to call themselves defending champions after a similar feat in Season 95, where they spoiled the perfect 18-0 season of powerhouse San Beda with a 65-64 squeaker in Game 1 of the finals before denying the Red Lions a fourth consecutive title in a Game 3 epic that saw Letran and their Finals MVP, Fran Yu, victorious, 81-79.
Before them, many hoops stars also donned the Letran jersey from legends like Lauro Mumar, Freddie Webb, and Samboy Lim, to Kerby Raymundo and Willie Miller, to more recently, Kevin Alas and Raymond Almazan.
Aside from basketball, Letran also excels in volleyball. Of the 10 member schools, Letran is in second place in terms of number of championships with 26 behind San Sebastian College-Recoletos’ whopping 47 titles.
Letran is also the winningest squad in table tennis with its 29 titles followed by San Beda University’s 20 and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s 15.
—JMB, GMA News
