1979 Royal Tru-Orange season

1979 Royal Tru-Orange season
1979 Royal Tru-Orange season
Head coach	Edgardo Ocampo
Owner(s)	San Miguel Corporation
All Filipino Conference results
Record	6–10 ; (37.5%)
Place	N/A
Playoff finish	N/A
Open Conference results
Record	21–5 ; (80.8%)
Place	1st
Playoff finish	Champions
Invitational Conference results
Record	1–4 ; (20%)
Place	6th
Playoff finish	N/A
Royal Tru-Orange seasons
	← 1978 1980 →

The 1979 Royal Tru-Orange season was the 5th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Transactions

ADDITIONS
Ramon Dizon, Danilo Salvador & Evalson Valencia ^{Rookies signed}

Championship

In the Second (Open) Conference, the Orangemen signed 6-7 Larry Pounds, a fifth-round draftee of the Golden State Warriors in 1975, and 6-11 Otto Moore, a veteran of NBA wars for nine seasons, as their imports. Royal emerge on top of the standings after the two-round eliminations with 13 wins and 3 losses and made it to the championship round by posting a 5-1 won-loss slate in the semifinals. On October 23, RTO defeated Crispa, 110–102, to reach the PBA finals for the first time in franchise history. ^[1]

On November 6, Royal Tru-Orange won their first PBA crown by defeating the Toyota Tamaraws, 102–101, rookie Ramon Dizon was the spark that ignited veterans on the team (Photographed here) Game 4 of the title playoffs for a 3–1 series victory. The Orangemen took the first two games, 104–99 and 100–95, the Tamaraws avoided a sweep by winning the third game, 99–98.

Royal Tru-Orange joins U/Tex Wranglers as the only other ballclub not named Crispa or Toyota, to have won a PBA title in the 1970s as RTO mentor and former olympian Edgardo Ocampo won his first championship as a head coach.^[2]

Roster

1979 Royal Tru-Orange roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	From
G/F	2	Baguio, Maximino	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Cebu Tech
G	4	Velasco, Paulino	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	Visayas
F/C	5	Migalbin, Jesus	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	San Agustin
F	6	dela Peña, Ricardo	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
G	7	Torrente, Antonio	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
G	8	Dizon, Ramon	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	PSBA
F	12	Jacutin, Marlowe	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Visayas
F	13	Gregorio, Teodulfo	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	Mapúa
G	14	Martirez, Yoyong	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)	Southwestern-U
F/C	15	Lalota, Rodolfo	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	Mapúa
G	16	Paguntalan, Leonardo	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Western Institute
F	17	Valencia, Evalson	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Western Institute
G		Salvador, Danilo	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	San Sebastian
F/C		Samson, Marte	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Ateneo
F	25	Pounds, Larry (I)	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	Washington
C	34	Moore, Otto (I)	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)	Texas