Straight-Shooting Atoy Co Today
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Cover of Daily Express magazine, 1976 (Photo courtesy of Atoy Co)
“Atoy Co?”
“Yes. Wow, he still looks great.”
“Amazing. It’s been a long time since he played basketball. How old do you think he is now?”
“Heard he’s 71, turning 72.”
“Pretty amazing.”
Women speak in soft voices and men gawk. All look in admiration at the guy who broke tv primetime viewing in the ‘70s and ‘80s with his long shots, jump shots, free throws, etc. that roused spectators off their seats to stomp, whistle and cry – “Atoy! Atoy! Atoy!”
The superstar was born in Daet, the capital city of Camarines Norte, Bicol, on October 15, 1951. He was the only son of a Chinese immigrant named Fortunato Co and a half-Chinese Bicolana named Ana Gan. Fortunato senior’s abbreviated name was Ato so it was only natural that he called his junior Atoy.
Little boy Atoy grew up and played with four sisters and cousins and all the kids in rural Daet. He had no particular affinity to basketball, he said, for he was no taller than anyone his age nor could he dribble and shoot ball better than anyone in the neighborhood.
When he got to high school, however, he experienced a growth spurt. Who knew? He could be like his dad who was 6’2” tall. There was potential. Atoy’s long legs took him to running relays, and because he was a typical Filipino in a basketball-crazed nation, he started to dabble in basketball.
Hmm, the boy was good. He could wing his way through his opponents, pause for a shot and jump for a win. When he moved to Manila for senior high, he was recruited to play for the school’s varsity team.
For college he enrolled in Mechanical Engineering at Mapua Institute. It would make a good career for someone interested in machines. However, the guys in the College of Chemical Engineering had other ideas. They needed someone on their basketball team and Atoy, who was now 6’1” and jumping head above the others, was ripe for action.
Atoy switched to Chemical Engineering and played ball.
In the end, it probably did not matter what his course was because his landed career had nothing to do with machines or chemistry or any kind of engineering for that matter. He became the king of the basketball court.
“Atoy,” I asked, “How did you get so good at shooting ball?”
“It was God’s gift,” he said.
But to be sure, he practiced long and hard. He spent hours playing every day, learning to get better and better at the game.
He switched tactic. As an amateur player he often threw the ball from his side but it did not always deliver. His first professional coach quickly changed that shot so that he would launch the ball from in front of him, directly aligned to the rim. He perfected his stance, his jump and delivery. He propelled to greatness.
In 1976 Fortunato Co, Jr. received the All-Filipino Sports Award for Basketball. The same year his team, the Crispa Redmanizers, won its first Grand Slam. In 1979 he was awarded Most Valuable Player by the Philippine Basketball Association. His accolades went on and on and by the time he hung his Crispa jersey in 1984, he had become the first player in PBA history to score 10,000 points.
Receiving an award in 1976 (Photo courtesy of Atoy Co)
I was very impressed. Like the rest of the country. I sat glued to our TV back in the ‘70s watching Crispa face off with Toyota. I prayed that Fortune Cookie, as Atoy was fondly called, would take his team to win.
Dodging archrival Robert Jaworski of Toyota Tamaraws in 1979. Atoy received MVP award that year. (Photo courtesy of Atoy Co)
With such fame and stardom, I assumed this superstar was by now a very wealthy man. After all, I heard that athletes make more money than God. For instance, today’s top players make around P20 million a year. Not exactly chump change.
I bit the bullet and asked the star.
“Atoy,” I whispered, “Are you a wealthy man?”
“Hahaha!” he laughed. During his best salaried year, in 1979, he said he made P4,000 a month or P48,000 a year. In today’s money, that would be roughly P352,000 a month or P4.2 million a year. Just about P15 million less than what today’s top players make.
Without doubt, it was still good money, and Atoy was grateful. His P4,000 a month salary was a far cry from his first paychecks from Crispa, which were P200 a month. But wait – they did give him a car. A brand new Ford Escort. Not bad.
His perks as a star player were more than enough to score big with women. He was 24 years old, single, rich, famous and drop dead gorgeous. Women threw themselves at him.
“Did you like that?” I asked. He reacted, he said, but not as much as one would have thought because in reality he was torpe. Shy.
Right.
He was famously associated with one of the most beautiful movie stars and sex symbols in her time – Alona Alegre.
Their relationship burned the front pages of sports and society papers. Alona, it seems, went to watch Atoy play in Rizal Memorial, and the superstar player, well, felt her presence. Their relationship lasted three years.
In 1978 Atoy was “single” again or unattached when he was hanging out with girls from Karilagan – the modeling and dance group with some of the most beautiful women in society. One of Karilagan’s prettiest was Monette Garcia, a ballet dancer who tiptoed her way to Atoy’s heart. She was with the group’s cast doing a show in Germany in 1979 when she received a phone call from boyfriend Atoy, at home in Manila.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
She didn’t even give the question time to sink in. “Yes!”
We all laughed out loud. Atoy and Monette are among the easiest guys to hang out with, and our interview was more like a date with chums than anything.
Monette and Atoy Co today (Photo by Bella Bonner)
“Atoy,” I asked, “Did you pop the question in Tagalog or English?”
He burst out laughing. “English! Ang hirap sabihin nun sa Tagalog!” (“That’s a hard one to say in Tagalog.”)
And then I asked, “Why did you ask her at this particular time?”
I meant why did he ask her while she was overseas rather than at his side, let’s say, in a scenic spot like Tagaytay where he could go down on his knee and present a ring.
He laughed again. “Because I was drunk!”
Hahaha. We agreed that he was drunk from missing Monette at his side.
The marriage produced three sons – Franz, Fort and Andre. He had a daughter prior to marriage named Christine, whom Monette lovingly considers her own. They now have three grandchildren, and it is for these kids that Atoy prays for long life for him and Monette.
Family together on Monette's birthday. 1st row L-R : Eva (Monette's mom), Monette with Alfie, Atoy with Manu 2nd row : Franz, Fort, Cerah and Andre (Photo courtesy of Monette Co)
The couple exercises often and regularly. They eat right and they try to stay clear away from stress. They love a lot. That’s why they look and feel good.
Nowadays they spend most of their time together taking care of their daily lives, traveling, minding their farm and their future home in Carmona, Cavite. For the first time, they will have a house that is being built to their specifications, having exactly the right number of rooms and bathrooms and kitchen and everything they want as a family. They will not have land enough to build a basketball court, but that’s okay, he said, for he will have access to two championship golf courses where he can further hone his 14 handicap.
“Atoy,” I asked again, “do you think you were born at the wrong time? I mean, should you have been born when athletes are making a king’s ransom?”
He gave the question pause.
“No,” he replied. “I was born at the right time.
“I loved playing basketball. That was more important to me than any money I could have made.”
What a nice guy.
“One more thing,” I asked, knowing that in his after-basketball life he had been a politician, an actor, a coach.
“Is there anything you’d like to have but have not achieved or attained in this lifetime?”
“Yes!” he cried.
“A Porsche Carrera!”
Hahaha.
Bella Bonner is a journalism graduate of the UP Institute of Mass Communications. Among others, she worked as a grant writer and hotelier in Texas where she lived for 30 years. She has retired, returned to Manila and spends her days in sports, traveling and writing a personal blog, "Chicharon Diaries."
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