Francis Arnaiz

Filipino basketball player (born 1951)

Francis C. Arnaiz (born June 4, 1951) is a Filipino former basketball player. He is best known for his career in the PBA, playing for Toyota and Ginebra San Miguel from 1975 to 1986.

Arnaiz had a love for sports and would shoot stuffed toys into a basket during his early childhood. While studying at La Salle Bacolod in elementary school, he competed in both football and basketball. Football provided him with speed and exceptional footwork, skills that would later contribute to his development as an outstanding basketball player. He led his high school, St. Clement's Academy of La Paz, Iloilo City, to the PRISAA basketball championship. In college, he played for Ateneo de Manila, which won the 1969 NCAA basketball championship during his rookie year. In 1971, he began playing in the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), first with the Meralco Reddy Kilowatts in 1971, the U/Tex Weavers in 1972 and the Toyota Comets in 1973. He was a member of the Philippine men's national basketball team that won the 1973 ABC Championship and competed in the 1974 FIBA World Championship.

Arnaiz was one of the original members of the Toyota franchise that joined the newly formed Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in 1975. Along with Robert Jaworski and Ramon Fernandez, he formed the troika of the vaunted Toyota offense. In fact, among the three players, he would have been the first to have won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award right in the very first season of the league in 1975 when media covering the PBA named him as the Basketball Player of the Year despite the fact that Bogs Adornado was the one named PBA MVP that year. During his Toyota years, the franchise won nine PBA titles while having memorable battles against arch rival Crispa Redmanizers, going head to head, on and off the court, with Crispa's Bernie Fabiosa. Arnaiz became one of the most popular players on the team not only for his playing style, but also for his mestizo looks, which gained him a following among the female fans. He was given the moniker "Mr. Clutch" for his propensity to hit clutch baskets during crucial moments of a game. He is known for looping layups against imports and local behemoths that were impossible to block, and booming outside shots. After Toyota disbanded in 1984, Arnaiz followed Jaworski in a controversial move to Gilbey's Gin (now known as Barangay Ginebra San Miguel). Reprising their old backcourt partnership in Toyota, the duo turned the Gins into a perennial contender. However, he was sidelined due to a knee injury and was placed in the injured list but, was part of the line up, during the early part of 1986 Open Conference when Ginebra San Miguel won its first PBA title. He quietly retired from basketball shortly afterwards. He won 10 championship in his illustrious PBA career, 9 with Toyota and 1 with Ginebra San Miguel.

After his playing career, Arnaiz immigrated to the United States, resided in California. He worked for the California state government while also becoming an evangelist. Arnaiz claims in an interview that his life abroad was quite different from his life in the Philippines. He is also a visual artist, some of his paintings are set to be displayed in Dante Silverio's gallery. Arnaiz was named as one of the PBA's Greatest Players and was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2004, during one of Arnaiz's visits to the Philippines, he was interviewed by various media outlets recalling several memories from his playing days to his life after retirement from basketball. He was supposed to play in 2003 Crispa Toyota Reunion Game and the 2005 PBA Greatest Game but failed to do so due to his prior commitments.