Ateneo–La Salle rivalry
The Ateneo–La Salle rivalry is a school rivalry between two universities in the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University. Both are private and top research and Catholic academic institutions within the Metropolitan Manila area. The Ateneo men's varsity team is known as Ateneo Blue Eagles, women's varsity team as Lady Eagles, and high school team as Blue Eaglets. The La Salle men's varsity team is known as De La Salle Green Archers, women's varsity team as Lady Archers/Spikers, and high school team as Junior Archers.
La Salle and Ateneo were co-founders of the NCAA but now compete in the UAAP. The seed for a future rivalry was planted after an Ateneo loss to La Salle in the championship game of NCAA season 16 (1939–40). Games between Ateneo and La Salle in the NCAA were always hotly contested but not yet tagged by the sportswriters as a rivalry since the recognized rivalry then was between Ateneo and San Beda, and La Salle and Letran. When Ateneo and La Salle transferred to the UAAP 1978 and 1986 respectively, they continued their hotly contested games and the sports press started to write about a rivalry. The basketball games between Ateneo and La Salle are currently the most anticipated in every UAAP season. These games draw huge crowd of students, school faculty/ officials, alumni, actors and actresses, musicians, business tycoons, high government officials such as cabinet members, senators, congressmen and justices of the Supreme Court also Former presidents of the Philippines and ambassadors of the United States of America also attend the games. Both schools have extended their rivalry into the academic field and other sports.
From 1924 to 1925, basketball games between Ateneo and La Salle were played at the open basketball courts in the Padre Faura, Ermita campus of UP and in 1926 at Nozaleda Park (now called Agrifina Circle which is part of Luneta Park). The venue later moved to the covered court of the US Army's 31st Infantry Gym and UST Gym. The games then moved to the Rizal Memorial Coliseum to accommodate bigger crowds, and at one point, the venues included the Ateneo Loyola Center, the Cuneta Astrodome, and the PhilSports Arena. Currently, the Smart Araneta Coliseum and the SM Mall of Asia Arena are the main venues for the sold out games also seen on national television.
As of 2014, the De La Salle Green Archers has more collegiate championships compared to the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the NCAA and UAAP combined. La Salle has 151 collegiate titles versus Ateneo with 80 collegiate titles. La Salle also has 7 Overall (General) Collegiate Championships versus Ateneo with 1 Overall (General) Collegiate Championship. This count excludes additional collegiate titles and the five (5) General Collegiate Championships also won by De La Salle-College of St. Benilde since it participated in the NCAA in 1998.
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