Freddie’s secrets of success

Last Friday, basketball legend Freddie Webb turned 75 and gathered his family and friends for a celebration at the Manila Golf and Country Club in Forbes Park the next day. For Fastbreak Freddie, there are two secrets to his success in life – his family and hard work. Freddie worked his way to success as a basketball player, actor and politician. He became a congressman and senator, gaining his place in history as the author of the Philhealth bill. His only regret was not finishing his collegiate studies at Letran to focus on making a living. He got married at the age of 20 in 1963 and decided to forego his education to concentrate on basketball from where he earned P250 a month and a day job as a filing clerk for the Elizalde group’s insurance company from where he was paid P350 a month. Freddie said as a newly-married couple, he and his wife Beth used to go to Subic and Clark to look for things to resell, anything from which to make a small profit, from dogs to kitchen utensils. “On long trips, we would stay in the car to sleep during nights so we wouldn’t have to spend for hotel,” he said. “It was a lot of hard work but it was honest work. Looking back, I owe basketball a lot because it put food on the table for my family. I eventually did work on TV and that was also a blessing.”

* * * * For 16 seasons, Freddie appeared on the highly-rated TV sit-com series “Chicks to Chicks,” later “Chika Chika Chicks” with Nova Villa, Carmi Martin and Maria Teresa Carlson. Freddie said director Ading Fernando was a genius at work and Nova was an incredibly talented actress. It was Fernando who made Carlson a popular TV actress with her signature line “si ako, si ikaw.” In his birthday celebration last Saturday, two of Freddie’s former YCO teammates came over, Turo Valenzona and Ed Roque. PBA legend Alvin Patrimonio was there. The widow of Freddie’s former teammate Caloy Loyzaga, Vicky, attended with her son Chito. Another former teammate Ed Ocampo’s wife Lulu also came. Some of Freddie’s Letran high school classmates showed up with their 85-yearold physics professor Vincent Quevedo. Freddie said his biggest blessing is family. He’s celebrating his 55th wedding anniversary with Beth next year. They have six children and 11 grandchildren. The highlight of Saturday’s get-together was when Freddie got the mike and paid tribute to his family. His daughters Pinky and Mabeth and sons Jason, Fritz, Mike and Hubert are all his favorites. Basketball will always have a special place in the Webb family as the records will show three generations of Webbs in the PBA – Freddie who played for Tanduay in three seasons from 1976 to 1978, son Jason who suited up for Sta. Lucia and Tanduay for six seasons up to 2003 and grandson Joshua who has played for Kia/Mahindra in the last three seasons. Joshua is Fritz’ son. Fritz has another son Noah who’s now playing for UP in the UAAP. * * * * Freddie said Fritz is the businessman in the family. It was Fritz who brought the brands Dr. Marten and Diesel to the country and expanded the family-owned Basement Salon to four outlets. Jason is now assistant coach with the Star Hotshots while Pinky is a host/presentor at CNN Philippines. Freddie played on the last Philippine Olympic basketball team in 1972. His teammates were Bogs Adornado, Ciso Bernardo, Joy Cleofas, Danny Florencio, Jimmy Mariano, Yoyong Martirez, Tembong Melencio, Ocampo, Manny Paner, Jun Papa and Marte Samson. The Philippines finished 13th of 16, losing to Poland, 90-75, Puerto Rico, 92-72, Germany, 93-74, Yugoslavia, 117-76, the Soviet Union, 11180 and Italy 101-80 and beating Senegal, 68-62, Egypt by default and Japan, 82-73. The next Olympics will be in 2020 in Tokyo and it’s the dream of every Filipino for the national team to return to the basketball event. The way to the Olympics is through the 2019 FIBA World Cup or the four Olympic Qualifying Tournaments of six teams each.