BEFORE THE likes of Kiefer Ravena and Von Pessumal, the Blue Eagles of the 1940s were led by the late Luis “Moro” Lorenzo Sr., one of the most established collegiate athletes of his generation. On top of earning back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards during the 1948 and 1949 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Basketball seasons, Lorenzo also earned a gold medal when he represented the country in the 1951 New Delhi Asian Games.
But other than his exemplary performance on the basketball court, what separated Lorenzo from the rest of his peers, College Athletics Office Director Benjo Afuang explains, was the mark he left on other sports such as track and field and football.
Because of the impact Lorenzo made while donning the blue and white, the Ateneo Athlete of the Year award was renamed to The GUIDON-Moro Lorenzo Award for Sports, immortalizing its namesake for years to come.
His legacy
Ateneans–both students and athletes alike–all recognize the name “Moro Lorenzo” even six decades after his playing career in the NCAA has ended. According to Afuang, this is due, in part, to the Lorenzo family’s commitment in continuing Moro’s legacy.
Throughout the Loyola Schools campus, there are a number of landmarks that continue to remind the Ateneo community of Lorenzo’s achievements, namely, the Moro Lorenzo Football Field and the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center.
Maria Lorenzo, Moro’s granddaughter, is proud that her grandfather continues to inspire other athletes even up to this day. “[He] would be honored that his legacy provides ways to promote athletic excellence in the Ateneo,” she says.
Because of the Lorenzo family’s numerous contributions to the university, Afuang mentions that the award was a way for the Ateneo to show its gratitude. But more than anything, it was a way to encapsulate the athletic excellence that its namesake stood for; Lorenzo’s legacy of athletic success is what the Ateneo continues to celebrate and is what his family hopes to continue.
The GUIDON-Moro Lorenzo Award
According to Afuang, the award used to be nomination-based, where students and athletes would recommend candidates to be considered. However, these responsibilities eventually shifted to the Ateneo’s athletics offices and student publication for the sake of objectivity.
Currently, an awardee is determined based on the athletes’ individual efforts—objectively gauged by the awards given or records broken in the tournaments they have participated in, while subjectively gauged by their overall dominance relative to their sport.
Afuang says that, in essence, the award strives to recognize mens sana in corpore sano–a sound mind in a sound body–in an athlete. But ultimately, it is a reminder for of a bygone period of Ateneo sports. Despite the decades that have passed, Lorenzo continues to be a tangible figure, one whose achievements and skill can serve as a model for Ateneans in the years to come.
