Only in the Philippines.Specifically, only in the University Town of Dumaguete, the City of Gentle People.
Could any marketing or PR man get Ateneo de Manila to sponsor a sporting event organized and managed under the name of, say De La Salle University? Farfetched, right?
So let me tell you this wonderful story about the sublimity of sporting events. You are all, of course, familiar with what is known as ping-pong diplomacy. Here are excerpts from the internet to refresh our memories on the subject which Time Magazine called, “The ping heard round the world.”
“When people in England played a small plastic ball on a table with round wooden bats a hundred years ago, perhaps it had never occurred to anyone–and indeed nor to anyone even three decades ago — that the game would play such a vital role in the Olympic Movement and be used someday as a powerful weapon in diplomacy leading to the re-opening of Sino-U.S. relations in the early ‘70s, contemporary history of the world.
“After the U.S.-backed Kuomintang government was overthrown in 1949, the US adopted a policy of blockade towards the newly-born People’s Republic of China…On April 12, a Pan Am 707 lands in Detroit, Michigan, carrying the People’s Republic of China’s world champion table tennis team for a series of matches and tours in 10 cities around the US. The era of ping-pong diplomacy had begun 12 months earlier when the American team–in Nagoya, Japan, for the World Table Tennis Championship–got a surprise invitation from their Chinese colleagues to visit the People’s Republic… And with good reason: no group of Americans had been invited to China since the Communist takeover in 1949.
“The ‘ping pong diplomacy’ led to the restoration of Sino-U.S. relations which had been cut for more than two decades. This triggered off a series of other events, including the restoration of China’s legitimate rights in the UN by an overwhelming majority vote in October, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and other countries.
“As Zhou Enlai said, a ball bounced over the net and the whole world was shocked. The big globe was set in motion by a tiny globe–something inexplicable in physical but not impossible in politics.
“And it is interesting to note that table tennis has played a similar role in the improvement of relations between the northern and southern parts of Korea. A united team consisting of players from both sides of the 38th parallel participated in the 41st World Table Tennis Championships held in Chiba from April 24 to May 6, 1991. The Corbillon Cup they won for the women’s team event brought jubilation to the 70 million Korean people. The victory was a milestone that might lead the split Korea to reconciliation and reunification.”
The on-going Silliman University Football Cup, on its third year of staging, is unique in the fact that the women’s division is sponsored by Foundation University.
In my over 50 years of involvement in sports management, I am not aware of any similar sporting event being staged by an academic institution where a “rival” and an institutional “competitor” in sports sponsors and underwrites the cost of a component of the tournament.
The SU Football Cup is a project of the Athletics Department of Silliman which is held from January to March, and play days are scheduled on weekends.
Before FU VP for finance & administration Dean Sinco left for Hawaii, he instructed FU football coaches Vladimir Villacora, Geraldine Cabrera, Carl Cabetinga, and James Rubio to meet with their SU counterparts, and suggest that a women’s division be included in the tournament with FU underwriting the cost, as well as providing the venue for competition.
On Jan. 10, I was pleasantly surprised to receive this email from FU coach Cabrera: “Coach Pere Carl Sienes and Andro Cendrome would like to meet you at 1:30 pm to discuss the status of the women’s category of the Silliman Football Cup…”
That meeting with Coach Cendrome, in-charge of the SU Football Cup women’s division and Coach Sienes for the men’s division, will become part of my happy memories in sports.
Without much fanfare, the SU Football Cup women’s division, sponsored by FU, was inaugurated Jan. 15 at the IYSPeace football field at the FU North Campus.
Six teams are taking part in this inaugural event: SU Ladies’ Football Team, FU Ladies’ Football Team, FU Alumni Ladies’ Football Team, NORFA Football Club, NOHS Ladies’ Football Team, and Bayawan City Ladies’ Football Team.
In the men’s division, 14 teams are participating, with football clubs coming from Bayawan, Siaton, Sibulan, Valencia, and Dumaguete.
Coaches Sienes and Cendrome recommended that a perpetual trophy be made available for the women’s division, and we are working on this now. We are looking for alumni of Silliman and Foundation universities who will jointly sponsor this perpetual trophy. The involvement of alumni of both universities in this unique sporting event will further lend significance to this partnership and cooperation that could further expand–from sports to other academic disciplines.
In this UniTown, we have our version of “football diplomacy”.
