Ateneo Blue Eagles
| Ateneo Blue Eagles | |
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| Ateneo de Manila University | |
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| League | UAAP |
| Joined | 1978 (NCAA founding member - 1924) |
| Location | Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City |
| Team colors | Blue and White |
| Fight song | Blue Eagle the King |
| Women's team | Lady Eagles |
| Juniors' team | Blue Eaglets |
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Seniors' general championships
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Juniors' general championships
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The Ateneo Blue Eagles is the collegiate men's varsity basketball team of the Ateneo de Manila University that plays in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), the premiere collegiate league in the Philippines. The collegiate women's varsity basketball team is called the Lady Eagles while the high school varsity basketball team is called the Blue Eaglets.
The Ateneo collegiate men's varsity basketball team was not always called the Blue Eagles. It got the name Blue Eagles when Ateneo adopted the Eagle as its mascot in 1938. Prior to that, from 1914 it was known under different names.
Ateneo has fifteen collegiate men's varsity teams that participate in fifteen sporting events of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, its mother league. Only the men's varsity basketball team is called the Blue Eagles. The other fourteen men's varsity teams have their own unique name to help differentiate them. The sports editors of The Guidon, the school's official student publication, are credited for the choice of these various names.
Thru the years, the Ateneo Blue Eagles have achieved excellence in sports. They have the most number of NCAA/UAAP basketball championships combined, from 1924 to 2015, due to a robust sports program: hiring competent local and foreign coaches, the availability of state-of-the art sports training facilities on campus, recruitment of top athletes, development of home-grown talents and an envious sports tradition.
Most Blue Eagles have succeeded in their post collegiate varsity days. They have become senators of the country, civil court judges, lawyers, bankers, engineers, doctors to name a few. Their success in life after graduating from college is attributable to their being strictly treated as student-athletes in school and not campus celebrities with privileges.
Twenty five years after playing their last game as Blue Eagles, the Board of Directors of the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame review their playing years as Blue Eagles. Those who meet the criteria are inducted into the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame.
When Ateneo started to participate in intercollegiate sports in 1914, its varsity basketball teams were simply referred to by the school community as the Ateneo Seniors and Ateneo Juniors. They were later dubbed the Blue and Whites by the sports press in the early 1920s when Ateneo joined sports leagues. When Ateneo adopted the Eagle as its mascot in 1938, the college and high school varsity basketball teams were given new names, the Blue Eagles and Blue Eaglets. The Ateneo Blue Eagles are sometimes called the Hail Mary Quintet by the sports press. This moniker was given to the Blue Eagles in 1926 when the sports press reporters noticed that the team would pray the Hail Mary during game time-outs and would win by the skin of their teeth. Ateneo also has a varsity basketball training team which is officially called Team B but popularly referred to by its nickname Team Glory Be. According to former Ateneo Blue Eagle and current Team B head coach Yuri Escueta (AB IS ’08), the team got its nickname from a former Team B player, Mark Badua. As Escueta recalls, "Team A has always been called the ‘Hail Mary Team’ so [Badua] named us ‘Glory Be’ since we were known as Team B."
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Wikipedia