In 1980, businessman and ambassador Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco, founder and owner of Northern Cement Corporation, was appointed by the Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos to become the project director for basketball in the country.

The team (playing as Northern Cement) easily won the 4th William Jones Cup in 1981, but failed to gain support among Filipino fans, as they viewed the program as merely having foreigners represent the country.

In 1981, at the Southeast Asian Games held in Manila, Jacobs was tasked to retain the country's gold medal in men's basketball.

In 1983, some recruits from the De La Salle squad that was also under the wings of Danding Cojuangco and five naturalized players began training for their ultimate goal of regaining the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) title in Hong Kong.

It was a formidable team composed of Hector Calma, Franz Pumaren, Tonichi Yturri, Alfie Almario, Jun Tan, Joseph Uichico, Teddy Alfarero and naturalized players Dennis Still, Jeff Moore, Chip Engelland, Johnny Nash and John Hegwood.

In December 1984, UAAP stars Allan Caidic, Pido Jarencio, Benji Gutierrez, Jerry Codiñera, and Leo Austria joined the NCC team playing exhibition games against PBA clubs during the third conference.

The first team that went to Malaysia for the Asian Interclub championship were composed of Moore, Engelland, Calma, Joseph Uichico, Franz Pumaren, Leoncio Tan, Elmer Reyes, Tonichi Yturri, Avelino "Samboy" Lim and Yves Dignadice.

Caidic, Jarencio and Codiñera became regular members of the national team in the following year while Leo Austria went on to join the first-ever PBA draft.

The players of NCC went on to play in the Philippine Basketball Association, with most of them ending up in Cojuangco's San Miguel Beer team.