Northern Cement basketball team

In 1980, businessman and ambassador Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco, founder and owner of Northern Cement Corporation, was appointed by the Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos to become the project director for basketball in the country. Cojuangco (despite not being an officer or member of the national basketball governing body at that time - the Basketball Association of the Philippines) was tasked to set up, finance, and develop the national basketball team to represent the country internationally. During that time, the best players in the country were playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the first professional basketball league in the Philippines, and in Asia. With the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur ruling that only amateur basketball players would be allowed to participate in national basketball team tournaments, Cojuangco sought a way to keep the Philippine basketball competitive on the international stage, without the country's best players.

American collegiate coaches Ron Jacobs and Ben Lindsey were brought in to handle the team. Eventually, Jacobs became NCC's head coach.

NCC competed as a guest team for four conferences during the 1984 and 1985 PBA seasons and they won the 1985 PBA Reinforced Conference championship. The team went on to represent the Philippines and captured the 1984 Asian Basketball Club Championship in Ipoh, Malaysia, as well as the 1985 William Jones Cup championship (playing as San Miguel Beer). Because of their win at the Asian Interclub Championship, the team represented the Asian region at the 1985 FIBA Club World Cup at Girona, Spain (playing as Northern Consolidated Cement).[1]

The 1984 roster that first participated in the PBA:

Northern Consolidated roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. F 4 Uichico, Jong 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) De La Salle G 5 Pumaren, Franz 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) De La Salle G 6 Tan, Leoncio 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) De La Salle F 7 Almario, Alfie 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) De La Salle F 8 Reyes, Elmer 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) San Beda F 9 Valenciano, Ludovico 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) USLS F 10 Engelland, Chip 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Duke C 11 Yturri, Tonichi 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) De La Salle G 12 Brill, Louie 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) San Beda G 14 Calma, Hector 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) Adamson F 15 Moore, Jeffrey 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Loyola (MD) F 16 Dignadice, Yves 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) STI WNU F 17 Cuenco, Rey 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) De La Salle Araneta F 18 Mendoza, Anthony 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Visayas F/C 19 Aguilar, Peter 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) TUA G 20 Solis, Al 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Visayas C 18 & 21 Alfarero, Teddy 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) De La Salle	Head coach Ron Jacobs Assistant coach(es) Filomeno Pumaren Francisco Calilan (Trainer) Legend (C) Team captain Injured

In December 1984, UAAP stars Allan Caidic, Pido Jarencio, Benji Gutierrez, Jerry Codiñera, and Leo Austria joined the NCC team playing exhibition games against PBA clubs during the third conference. Northerns second team was coached by veteran coach Francisco Calilan. The first team that went to Malaysia for the Asian Interclub championship were composed of Moore, Engelland, Calma, Joseph Uichico, Franz Pumaren, Leoncio Tan, Elmer Reyes, Tonichi Yturri, Avelino "Samboy" Lim and Yves Dignadice.

Caidic, Jarencio and Codiñera became regular members of the national team in the following year while Leo Austria went on to join the first-ever PBA draft.

In 1985, the members of the NCC team played for the country's national basketball team. The NCC-powered national team won the 1985 Southeast Asian Games basketball tournament and the Asian Basketball Confederation Championship on January 5, 1986, at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, tournament which the country had not won since 1973. In winning the ABC Championship, the team qualified for the 1986 World Basketball Championship in Madrid, Spain and the 1986 Goodwill Games. At this time, Jacobs mapped out a new plan to ensure continuity in the national team program. New local players such as Benjie Paras, Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codiñera were already being eyed to replace the aging Still and Moore. Engelland, on the other hand, was already honing the shooting skills of Allan Caidic, Naning Valenciano and Pido Jarencio. Amateur star Jojo Lastimosa was expected to fill Engelland's slot on the team in the future (Engelland eventually became the shooting coach of the San Antonio Spurs). However, the NCC program was scrapped in the aftermath of the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines. The Philippines was forced to withdraw from the World Championship as a result.

After the fall of the Marcos government in 1986, the program was scrapped by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), which was the national basketball governing body of the country at that time. The players of NCC went on to play in the Philippine Basketball Association, with most of them ending up in Cojuangco's San Miguel Beer team. Some of the NCC players would again see action for the national team at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, China, which copped a silver medal.

In 1994, the San Miguel Beer PBA team won the 1994 PBA All-Filipino Cup championship and earned the right to represent the country in the upcoming Asian Games, held at Hiroshima, Japan. The national team was composed of the San Miguel players serving as the core of the team and other PBA players (notably Alvin Patrimonio from Purefoods and Johnny Abarrientos from Alaska) and amateur standouts (notably Marlou Aquino from the Philippine Basketball League). The team, led by NCC alumni Allan Caidic and Hector Calma, went on to finish fourth with Caidic finishing as the Asian Games basketball tournament top scorer.

• Philippines men's national basketball team
• San Miguel Beermen

• 1981 RP training team
• Official website of the Northern Cement Corporation