A football man running an arena for the country’s premier basketball league?

Believe it or not, it did happen in the mid-1980s to early 1990s when the PBA games moved out for the first time from the Araneta Coliseum to the University of Life Theater Recreation Arena, still known by many by its popular and still familiar acronym ULTRA, in Pasig.

The man responsible for that was then University of Life Sports Complex general manager Henri Kahn, a former Philippine Football Federation president, who passed away November 6. He was 69.

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Always brimming with ideas, Kahn convinced the late PBA commissioner Rudy Salud, an astute lawyer who could drive a hard bargain, to transfer to the ULTRA as the new home of Asia’s oldest play-for-pay league in 1985 after a decade at the Big Dome.

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Kahn and Salud made the 10,000-seat ULTRA a popular PBA venue, with the help of Pasig city officials, who allowed public transport to pass by the UL Sports Complex in what was then a quiet metro suburb that made it accessible to PBA fans.

At that time, ULTRA was modern and relatively new, being the centerpiece of the complex that opened as a major hub of the 1981 Manila Southeast Asian games, emerging as the scene of some memorable PBA highlights.

Credit that largely to charismatic Robert “The Big J” Jaworksi, who was at the peak of his popularity then as Ginebra playing coach whose never-say-die Gin Kings packed the venue whenever they took the floor. Thus Barangay Ginebra was born at the ULTRA.

As UL Sports Complex honcho, Kahn made ULTRA a byword until now, even though it has been renamed the PhilSports Complex under the management of the Philippine Sports Commission, just behind the main office of the Department of Education.

“For me, Henri was a visionary, a man who was ahead of his time,” said former UL deputy general manager Gerry Achacoso, who was also the PFF general secretary when Kahn became the PFF president from 1988 to 1992, of his former boss.

A La Salle graduate in Business Administration, Kahn, Achacoso added, used his entrepreneurship skills to make UL Sports Complex a self-sustaining venture so it wouldn’t become a white elephant of the government.

“We held corporate sportsfests at the UL to earn an income, including music concerts that were also quite popular then,” Achacoso said.

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Achacoso said among Kahn’s legacies then was acquiring the Nautilus brand, top-of-the-line fitness equipment, for its Sports, Health and Physical Education (SHAPE) Center, becoming a beehive for fitness buffs.

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“We were also the first institution in the Philippines to sign a partnership with the United States Sports Academy through Kahn’s initiative,” the former UL executive said of the acclaimed Alabama-based sports institution, which has a present agreement with the PSC.

Freddie Jalasco, a former basketball amateur standout, who worked with the facility’s operations department, said: “Sir Henri was a jolly boss and approachable, although he would suddenly pop up when we had activities at the ULTRA or at our field.”

“He (Kahn) was very easy to work with,” Jalasco, the husband of former Philippine Olympic Committee president Cristy Ramos, added.

Football opened doors

Actually, it was football that enabled Kahn to get inside the UL Sports Complex after organizing the successful 22nd Group 2 elimination tournament together with elder brother Mike at the UL football field in 1980.

That competition was notable for the PH Youth squad’s 4-3 upset of Indonesia, the country’s first win over the Southeast Asian football powerhouse in 21 years.

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Achacoso said that the competition ran so smoothly that it caught the eye of Project: Gintong Alay chief Michael Keon, nephew of the late President Marcos who was the Philippine Olympic Committee president at the time, who set up an appointment with Kahn.

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“Both Keon and Kahn seemed to hit it off that the former talked to my overall boss, Human Settlements Secretary Jolly Benitez, and recommended Henri to be the GM of the UL Sports Complex. He was already at the top post when the 1981 SEA Games came around,” he recalled.

Former Philippine Olympic Committee chairman Monico Puentevella added: “We lost another good sportsman, especially in football. Kahn was always trying to help Philippine sports.”

“Henri was also a very good goalkeeper for La Salle,” said Puentevella, fellow La Salle alumni, who witnessed the late PFF official in action during his varsity days.

Kahn, in fact, bled La Salle green, completing his studies from elementary to college at the institution.

All his 6 children — 3 daughters and 3 sons — also studied at La Salle.

“I would proudly point to my classmates that my dad’s name was there along with the rest of the outstanding athletes,” said the late Kahn’s son, Devon Henri, during his father’s final service in his memory on Friday at the New Life Church in Alabang.

The PFF also paid tribute to Kahn last November 9 in a post, saying: “He (Kahn) was an ardent promoter of the beautiful game.”

Before the Asian Youth tournament, Henri and Mike Kahn were also the impresarios behind the successful friendly match in 1979 featuring Chinese club Liao Ning and top Spanish club Real de Portivo Espanol in 1979, according to veteran sports scribe Ignacio Dee.

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“To the credit of the Kahns and involvement of the Filipino-Chinese soccer community, they were able to pack the Rizal Memorial Football stadium for that goodwill game,” Dee remembered.

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