The Blue Eagle Gym is a gymnasium located in the main campus of the Ateneo de Manila University in

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read and pronounced in Filipino language, Filipino as Kyusi), is the richest and List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 c ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Unlike most gymnasiums, the basketball court is oriented perpendicular to the orientation of the building.

History

The indoor facility was built in 1949, three years before the Ateneo de Manila University moved from its Manila campus to its current main campus in Loyola Heights, Quezon City in 1952. At its inauguration in 1949, it was called the Ateneo de Manila Gymnasium or Ateneo Gym. From late 1960s to mid 1970s, it was officially known as the Loyola Center. It was in the year 2000 that it was renamed the Blue Eagle Gym. According to historical records, the gym was constructed under the direction of Ateneo Rector William F. Masterson, S.J., to be an alternative venue to the

Rizal Memorial Coliseum The Rizal Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena in the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila, Philippines. It can hold up to 6,100 people. History The Rizal Memorial Coliseum within the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex was built on the former si ...

for the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

games. It is frequently a venue for sporting events of the

University Athletic Association of the Philippines The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univ ...

and the

(pre-1978). Ateneo's games, however, were played at the

to prevent any home-court advantage during the school's NCAA years. It was also a venue for

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

games in the league's early years. The

Manila Metrostars The Manila Metrostars were a professional basketball team in the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2001. The team was the 1999 MBA National Champions and holds the MBA record of winning 22 consecutive games during the s ...

of the defunct

Metropolitan Basketball Association The Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), also shortened as Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran for five seasons from 1998 until 2002. The MBA was established to rival the Philippine Basketball Asso ...

also used the Blue Eagle Gym as a temporary home court before moving to the Mail and More Arena in San Andres, Manila. The Blue Eagle Gym played host to the sepak takraw tournament of the 1991 Southeast Asian Games. It was scheduled to be the venue for women's basketball in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, but since the

Basketball Association of the Philippines The Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) was the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) recognized national governing body for basketball in the Philippines. It was recognized by the FIBA in 1936 until 2007 when the Samahang B ...

was suspended by

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French language, French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the Basketball equipment ...

, the gymnasium was not able to host the event. The gymnasium is the home of the

Ateneo Blue Eagles The Ateneo Blue Eagles are the collegiate varsity teams of the Ateneo de Manila University that play in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), the premiere collegiate league in the Philippines. The Ateneo collegiate ...

, Ateneo de Manila University's varsity teams. It was used also as a training venue for the 2015 U23 and SEA Games national women's volleyball teams managed by the Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. (LVPI), whose secretary general, Ricky Palou happened to be a former athletic director of the school. In 2019, the gymnasium had a minor facelift in time for UAAP's Season 82 basketball, around the time that the planning for a major renovation started. The commencement of the actual renovation was announced in September 2023. It will reportedly include the construction of an indoor running track encircling the building, a centralized air conditioning system, and a larger floor space which can accommodate three basketball courts. Blue Eagle Gym int

References

External links

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Blue Eagle GymThe Blue Eagle Gym flies again
{{Sports venues in the Greater Manila Area Ateneo de Manila University Basketball venues in the Philippines Educational structures in Metro Manila Indoor arenas in the Philippines MPBL venues Quezon City Galeries Taipan Sports venues in Quezon City University sports venues in the Philippines