Felicisimo "Fely" Fajardo (October 26, 1915 – August 19, 2001) was a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who competed in the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

Basketball career

Fely was one of Philippine basketball's top forwards during the early 1940s. He first saw action in an organized tournament as a UST Golden Nugget in 1931. After finishing high school in 1935, he took up commerce at

Letran College The Colegio de San Juan de Letran, (transl: College of San Juan de Letran) also referred to by its acronym CSJL, is a private Catholic coeducational basic and higher education institution owned and run by the friars of the Order of Preachers i ...

and powered the varsity team to its first NCAA senior title in 1940. Fely made it to the national team for the first time in the 1938 Far Eastern games in Tokyo, among his teammates were outstanding players such as Charles Borck, Francisco Vestil, brother Gabby and Arturo Rius. The Philippines placed second and Fely was again in the 1940 RP team in Manila. After the War, Fely was back again in 1947 as a UST Glowing Goldie and one year later, was chosen to play for the national team in the

1948 London Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. He retired from active competition at a relatively young age of 34 in 1949.

Coaching career

Fely has coach five national teams and mentored two champion teams, the 1963 ABC championships in Taipei and the 1970 ABC Youth in Manila. He piloted the Philippine team to ninth place in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, second place in the 1965 ABC in Kuala Lumpur and fifth in the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1966. He also coached the San Beda Red Lions to three NCAA championships from 1951-1953, and transferred to his alma mater

UST UST or Ust may refer to: Organizations * UST (company), American digital technology company * Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union * Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad) * United States Television Manufacturing Corp. * UST Gr ...

in 1955 and gave the Pontifical team the UAAP and inter-collegiate titles that year. In the MICAA, Fely has coached several teams, Ysmael Steel,

Meralco The Manila Electric Company (), also known as Meralco (, ), is an electric power distribution company in the Philippines. It is Metro Manila's only electric power distributor and holds the power distribution franchise for 22 cities and 89 munic ...

, YCO and lastly Mariwasa, until the team joined the PBA in 1975. After his coaching stint with Mariwasa, he became the athletic director of the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; fil, Pamantasan ng Pilipinas Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500 (UP Charter of 200 ...

. However, he briefly returned to the bench via PBA expansion team Tefilin Polyesters from 1980 to 1981.

References

External links

* 1915 births 2001 deaths Basketball players from Pampanga Letran Knights basketball players Olympic basketball players of the Philippines Basketball players at the 1948 Summer Olympics Philippines men's national basketball team players Filipino men's basketball players Philippines men's national basketball team coaches UST Growling Tigers basketball players San Beda Red Lions basketball coaches UST Growling Tigers basketball coaches {{Philippines-basketball-bio-stub