Xavier’s ’72 class’ ‘Indomitable Spirit’

Last weekend, Xavier School’s Class of ’72 gathered for a Golden Jubilee reunion at Conrad Hotel and celebrated the moment with a commemorative coffee table book entitled “Indomitable Spirit” whose editor is a friend from way back, basketball aficionado and writer Henry Liao.

Not surprisingly, Henry came from Class of ’72 and two of his batchmates were Ernie Yap, who went on to play varsity football for La Salle and Robin Tong whose passion for sports, particularly basketball, is legendary. It was Robin who reached out to share that in 1972, underdog Xavier School defeated Grace Christian to claim its first-ever Chinese league championship. “The tournament was the precursor of the Tiong Lian tournament that Xavier would later dominate,” noted Robin. “Xavier was at a distinct disadvantage as our players went up against older, stronger and more experienced players because downtown-based Chinese schools had the benefit of a six-year high school curriculum with Junior High, similar to today’s K-12. Atoy Co was one such player who torched Xavier for 44 points in one high school game that Philippine Cultural won handily. Atoy was older and didn’t intersect with the ’72 team as he was already with Mapua that year.”

Two players on Xavier’s ’72 team were Elmer Lim who went to UP for college and became Xavier’s first alumnus to play in the UAAP and Henry Brodett who later joined La Salle. Both were from Class of ’73. The squad was coached by alumni volunteers William Yu and Eric Lim. Incidentally, David Wong and Eric Lim were the first Xavier alumni to suit up in the NCAA. Aside from the Chinese league crown, Xavier won the Philippine Athletic Youth Association (PAYA) championship so the year left a clear imprint on a rich tradition in sports. As for Robin, he played varsity softball, baseball and volleyball. “Our basketball coach tried recruiting me in High 1 but my relatives were all in the softball team,” he said. “When I enrolled at Ateneo for college, I took pre-med and spent most of the time hitting the books so I never got to play varsity.”

Curiously, Henry had no role in sports at Xavier. “Henry always liked basketball and followed the NBA games whenever and however he could even via shortwave radio,” said Robin. “He was a voracious reader, and still is, who read up on the then little-known NBA from publications that friends shared with him when he couldn’t get his own. He’s a lifelong LA Lakers fan. In our class, we had no one who became a taipan, we were just pantays. Our class was very below the radar but our spirit was indomitable. It’s interesting that our class has roots to Xavier’s first incoming Kinder 1 class at the new Little Baguio campus in June 1960.” The coffee table book “Indomitable Spirit” was published with support from Nita Claravall and Associates, an advertising, production and marketing specialist.