There's a rich history between the SMB and Purefoods franchises and a new chapter will be written when the San Miguel Beermen and Magnolia Hosthots clash in the 2018 PBA Philippine Cup finals.
It will be the eighth time the two franchises will face each other in a championship series since 1988. Finals duels between the two were almost an annual occurrence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially in the All-Filipino Conference. In 2000 and 2013, both teams met in the Governors' Cup finals. Overall, San Miguel has won five titles over its sister franchise.
Let's revisit the past seven times these two teams met in the PBA finals.
1988 Open Conference
Behind Ramon Fernandez and import David Thirdkill, the Purefoods Hotdogs, which was in its maiden season in the PBA, raced to a 3-2 lead over San Miguel before Abet Guidaben and Norman Black helped the Beermen take Games 6 and 7 to repeat as champions. It was just the second time in league history that a finals series went the full distance. After a few months, Fernandez and Guidaben swapped jerseys after the two teams made a trade.
1989 All-Filipino Conference
Fresh from winning the title in the Open Conference, the Beermen wound up in the finals again against Purefoods. This time it was Ramon Fernandez leading San Miguel, while the Hotdogs leaned on Alvin Patrimonio. The series failed to reach seven games as the Beermen clinched the title in Game 6. It would be SMB's second championship in as many conferences that season. The Beermen went on to win the third conference to complete the Grand Slam.
1992 All-Filipino Conference
Like their first finals encounter, the series went to seven games. Purefoods got off to a 2-1 series lead before the Beermen won the next two games to inch closer to the title. The Hotdogs managed to force a rubber match, but they were unable to put up a fight in Game 7 as San Miguel went on to win its first championship since their Grand Slam and ninth overall.
1993 All-Filipino Conference
At the start of the 1993 season, the Purefoods franchise renamed its team the Coney Island Ice Cream Stars. Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera and Boy Cabahug were instrumental in their team's playoff run as Coney Island finally beat the San Miguel Beermen in the finals, 4-2. Chot Reyes made history by becoming the first coach to win a title in his first conference.
1994 All-Filipino Conference
San Miguel and Coney Island made the All-Filipino finals for the third straight season. But this time there was more at stake. As incentive, the eventual champion would represent the Philippines in the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan. The Beermen, behind Allan Caidic, took a commanding 3-1 series lead which Coney Island never recovered from to claim the title after six games.
2000 Governors' Cup
San Miguel was a heavy favorite heading into the 2000 Governors' Cup finals with both Dannys (Ildefonso and Seigle) at the peak of their games, as well as an explosive import in Lamont Strothers. Alvin Patrimonio was past his prime and Purefoods had to rely a lot on their import Derrick Brown on the offensive end. The Beermen only needed five games to snag their 15th title overall. In 2001, San Miguel Corporation bought the Purefoods franchise.
2013 Governors' Cup
It took more than a decade before these two franchises faced each other in the finals again. But both teams were sporting different names. San Miguel was now the Petron Blaze Boosters, while Purefoods was renamed to the San Mig Coffee Mixers. Tim Cone was now the coach of the Purefoods franchise, which had young stars in James Yap, PJ Simon, Marc Pingris and Mark Barroca. On the other hand, Petron had Arwind Santos, Chris Lutz, Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot, Ronald Tubid and a rookie named June Mar Fajardo. The series went the full distance, but it was the Mixers who won the title, which was their first of four straight.