Place of Birth: Maasin, Southern Leyte
Achievements:
Article about Jake Rojas(courtesy of Dennis Albinto):
Cebu’s legend of the hoops
By Rommel C. Manlosa
SunStar Daily Cebu
Date: ???
This may be why Joaquin “Jake” Rojas is still very
much into basketball at 63-years-old. He may not be
as agile as when he was regarded as Mr. Basketball
decades ago, he is still as sharp now as a bench tactician
for the University of Cebu Mariners.
Jake could well be the greatest basketball player Cebu
has ever produced, having etched his names in many
basketball firsts. A PBA pioneer, he was one of the
highest paid players playing for the Toyota Tamaraws. And
if you ever wondered who that guy on the PBA logo is,
wonder no more. It was Jake.
But basketball was not his first love. Jake was once
an amateur boxer who represented Visayan Institute (now
University of the Visayas) in the Golden Gloves way
back in early 50s.
“I played basketball just for fun and I never
realized that this would be my future. I started playing
basketball at UV, but I was discovered in the intramurals
in 1957,” Rojas said.
Born in Maasin, Southern Leyte, Jake studied at UV
where his father Joaquin Sr. was the dean of the liberal
arts department. In 1957 he joined the Green Lancers
who won the inter-collegiate championship the same year
under the mentorship of Eddie Gullas.
Although he displayed quite a flair in the game, Jake
still considered quitting the game when he worked in a
lumberyard in Ozamis City. So if there was one person
he is very grateful for leading him back to the game,
it is the late Sun.Star sports editor Orlando
Sanchez.
“I cannot forget Lando Sanchez, he was the one who
urged me to go back when I found a job in Ozamis
City,” Rojas said.
After Rojas left UV, it was then that he began to make
bigger waves in his career. He joined the RP team and
was the squad’s playmaker from 1965 to 1972.
Rojas played in the 1965 Kuala Lumpur ABC, the 1966
Asian Games in Bangkok, 1967 Barcelona World
Championship, 1967 ABC Championship in Korea and the 1968 Mexico
Olympics.
His other tour of duties were in the 1969 ABC
Championships in Bangkok, Fiesta Sukan Championship in 1970,
1971 Tokyo ABC and 1972 Fiesta Sukan championship in
Singapore. In 1966 and 1968 he was named Mr. Basketball
by the Philippine Sportswriters Association.
With his talent, juicy offers came his way from the
various commercial leagues. He played in the Micaa for
Ysmael Steel from 1964-67, Mariwasa-Honda in 1967-73
and from 1973-1977 with Toyota. When PBA was created in
1975, Rojas donned the Toyota uniform for three
seasons.
Jake lived a princely life with an P8,000 monthly
salary, more than 40 times the P180 average salary of the
rank and file in those days. Those were the good old
days, he says, recalling that at that time he could buy
three bottles of beer for just P1 and rice cost just
25 cents a kilo.
Jake retired in 1977 at the age of 39 and went back to
Cebu to finish a bachelor’s degree in PE and
history at UV. He also coached the team from 1977 to 1980
before transferring to the Cebu Central College (now
UC).
With age fast catching up, Jake no longer frequents
the hardcourt to play hoops. He’s now into tennis,
which he plays with gusto wearing his trademark cap.
On the tennis court he looks as ordinary as anyone.
But no matter how few times he heaves a basketball into
the net nowadays, Jake will forever be a Cebuano
basketball legend.