Joseph Sam Phillip was re­mem­bered as a trail­blaz­er who rose from hum­ble be­gin­nings to oc­cu­py a front-row seat and wit­ness many con­se­quen­tial his­tor­i­cal events in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s his­to­ry.

The life of the for­mer sol­dier and sports ad­min­is­tra­tor par ex­cel­lence was cel­e­brat­ed last week by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Crick­et Board at a memo­r­i­al ser­vice at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre at Bal­main, Cou­va.

Phillip, 69, who lived at Trinci­ty, passed away sud­den­ly and was buried at the Tacarigua Ceme­tery on Sat­ur­day af­ter an emo­tion­al cer­e­mo­ny at a packed Good Shep­herd An­gli­can Church in Tu­na­puna.

Last Thurs­day’s TTCB Memo­r­i­al Ser­vice in­volved his close fam­i­ly and near rel­a­tives, along with mem­bers of the TTCB head­ed by its pres­i­dent, Az­im Bas­sarath, and his Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive.

The ser­vice was con­duct­ed by Fa­ther Wayne Morne, who im­pressed up­on every­one present the ex­em­plary qual­i­ties of Phillip, which were wor­thy of em­u­la­tion to help make the na­tion a bet­ter place.

The spir­i­tu­al leader said that Phillip com­mit­ted him­self to his fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty at great sac­ri­fice, which ex­tend­ed to serv­ing in an ad­min­is­tra­tive ca­pac­i­ty in the two ma­jor sports in the coun­try.

He said it was im­por­tant that the na­tion­al crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tion recog­nise the con­tri­bu­tion made by one of its own to al­low the fam­i­ly and close rel­a­tives to share their ex­pe­ri­ences and mem­o­ries of their fa­ther, broth­er, un­cle, and grand­fa­ther.

Fa­ther Morne said it was in­deed mo­men­tous that Philip’s memo­r­i­al ser­vice brought to­geth­er the An­gli­can parish­es of Tu­na­puna, Tacarigua, Bal­main (where he lives), and San Fer­nan­do (where he serves as the An­gli­can priest).

In his trib­ute, the TTCB pres­i­dent said that crick­et was in­debt­ed to Phillip for the ad­vice and con­tri­bu­tion he made while serv­ing on the Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive and as chair­man of the East Zon­al Coun­cil of the TTCB.

“Sam Phillip had the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the on­ly per­son to have served in an ex­ec­u­tive ca­pac­i­ty on both the Crick­et Board and the Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion,” said Bas­sarath.

Phillip was al­so the as­sis­tant man­ag­er of the So­ca War­riors na­tion­al foot­ball team, which made his­to­ry by qual­i­fy­ing for the 2006 FI­FA World Cup in Ger­many.

The for­mer Army sharp­shoot­er was al­so sta­tioned at the Pres­i­dent’s House dur­ing the tenure of Pres­i­dent Noor Has­sanali, who con­sid­ered Phillip a friend and con­fi­dante.

Bas­sarath high­light­ed the ini­tia­tive of Phillip to in­tro­duce a T-12 crick­et com­pe­ti­tion in the East Zone, which gen­er­at­ed great in­ter­est. In trib­ute to him, Bas­sarath said the TTCB will keep the tour­na­ment alive by spon­sor­ing an an­nu­al “Sam Phillip T-12 Tour­na­ment.”

At the end of the two-hour-long ser­vice, all were treat­ed to a lav­ish din­ner, in an­oth­er trib­ute to Phillip, whose favourite meal was cur­ry.