The 1979 Toyota Tamaraws season was the fifth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
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Summary
The defending All-Filipino Conference champions had one new acquisition during the off-season, former University of Visayas cager Arnie Tuadles, taking the spot left by Fort Acuña, who retired to become coach Dante Silverio's assistant on the bench. The Tamaraws were tied with rival Crispa Redmanizers on top of the standings with 14 wins and 2 losses after 16 games. In the semifinal round, Toyota scored four straight victories to become the first team to enter the finals. On June 21, the Crispa Redmanizers formalized a return match with Toyota in the final playoffs, after two years and six conferences, with a 172-142 victory over the Tamaraws for their fourth win in five games on the night Atoy Co scored 50 points while Abe King of Toyota scored a season-high 60 points. The Tamaraws lost to Crispa in the championship series in five games.
Bruce "Sky" King return for Toyota in the Open Conference, his import partner was 6-8 Andrew Fields, a former standout of Pennsylvania's Cheyney College. Fields debut with 16 points in Toyota's 124-118 overtime win over Gilbey's Gin, which got a combined 89-point output from their two imports, Larry McNeill and Dean Tolson, in the opening game of the second conference on August 5. Toyota finish a game behind Royal Tru-Orange after the two-round eliminations with 12 wins and 4 losses. Toyota makes it to the championship round against RTO, who were led by imports Larry Pounds and Otto Moore. The Tamaraws ended up bridesmaid for the second straight conference, losing to the Orangemen in four games of the title series.
Three Toyota players; Ramon Fernandez, Abe King and Ernesto Estrada, skipped action in the round-robin of six teams in the Invitational championship, their being sideline because of the disciplinary measures instituted by coach Dante Silverio, who felt they did not play their best on several occasions in the second conference where Toyota lost in the finals to Royal. Despite the absence of the three, the Tamaraws still made it to the finals for the third time in the season, playing against rival Crispa Walk Tall Jeans. After the Tamaraws lost Game one by a whooping 28-point margin, the Toyota management decided to reactivate Fernandez, King and Estrada. Coach Dante Silverio resigned earlier in the day as both manager and coach upon learning on the management decision.
Toyota retains the crown they won from last season and avoided a repeat of three runner-up finishes back in 1976, by defeating Crispa Walk Tall Jeans in the finals series, 3 games to 1, winning Game four, 98-87 on December 15, for their 6th PBA title. The victory snapped Toyota's five straight finals losses to their arch rivals, they won the championship this time under new coach Fort Acuña.
Notable dates
June 21: Abe King scored a conference-high 60 points in Toyota's 142-172 semifinal loss to Crispa, the 60-point output broke the previous record of 51 points set by Tony Torrente of Royal.
November 27: Francis Arnaiz became the second player to reach 5,000 career points in Toyota's 88-81 win over Royal Tru Orange.
December 11: Dante Silverio resigns as Toyota head coach after management reinstates Ramon Fernandez, Ernesto Estrada and Abe King in Game 2 of the Invitational Conference finals.
Awards
Arnie Tuadles was voted the season's Rookie of the year. Tuadles was also named in the mythical first team.
Ramon Fernandez lost out to Atoy Co in a close balloting for the season's Most Valuable Player award and settled for the mythical first team award along with Arnie Tuadles and Robert Jaworski.