The 1981 U/Tex Wranglers season was the seventh season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
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Award
William "Bogs" Adornado received his third MVP plum, becoming the PBA's first three-time Most Valuable Player Awardee. Adornado won his first two during the league's first two seasons in 1975–1976 while playing for Crispa Redmanizers.
Summary
Former Boston Celtic Glenn McDonald, who won two titles with U/Tex as their import, became the new head coach of the Wranglers, replacing his former coach Tommy Manotoc, who transferred to San Miguel Beer. The Wranglers had a pair of 6-5 Francois Wise and 6-9 Darrell Allums as their imports for the Open Conference. The U/Tex Wranglers finish the first round of eliminations tied with Crispa on top with a 7-2 won-loss card, they scored a similar number of victories in the second round to tie the San Miguel Beermen at first place in the standings after 18 games with 14 wins and 4 losses. Both teams were left out by traditional powerhouses Toyota and Crispa during the semifinal round. U/Tex placed third by winning their series over the beermen in five games.
U/Tex lost their first two games in the Reinforced Filipino Conference with John Kazmer as their import, but since the arrival of Leroy Jackson, the Wranglers went into a six-game winning streak and placed third behind Toyota and Crispa at the end of the elimination phase. The Wranglers continued its winning run in the round of six and was the first team to land one of the two finals berth during the semifinal round. U/Tex lost to Crispa Redmanizers in four games in their best-of-five title series.