Coach Tommy Manotoc left the team to join the San Miguel Beermen as their new mentor beginning the 1981 PBA season, replacing him on the U/Tex bench is their former import Glenn McDonald. The Wranglers made it to the Reinforced Filipino Conference championship, the second and final conference of the season as they played the Crispa Redmanizers in the finals for the third time in five years. U/Tex had 6'3" Leroy Jackson as their import pitted against 6'1" Al Green and they lost to the Redmanizers in four games. As a Wrangler, William 'Bogs' Adornado won his third Most Valuable Player (MVP) award at the end of the season.