Finding "Treasure" - What happens next?

For those of you who emailed me with your best wishes, thank you so much! Just doing my part to help chronicle part of Singapore's sporting history... #lestweforget

Some of you have also asked - "What do you usually do when you find a piece of  sports memorabilia?"

I'm not a trained curator and neither have I gone through a course on artefact research and preservation but here is what I usually do, when I find "treasure", which I like to call these pieces of Singapore's sporting history...

Step 1: Give the artefact a once through, a 360 degree visual check. Is it carrying fleas? (Important question!)

Looks pristine and well kept!

Step 2: Look for anything that may give an indication of which era it is from. In this case, the jacket patch clearly states that it is from the 9th SEA Games in 1977.

Note any variations (you might need to see a few examples of jacket patches before you learn to recognise any variation)

Step 3: Look for anything that may tell you the identity of the wearer/owner... Not an easy task! Failing which, look for the Tailor's mark...

In this case "211" may be the key 

to the identity of the owner. 

Check if Tailor still exists!

Update: SAINT the Gents Tailor, has been found at Katong Shopping Centre! Will be heading there tomorrow, to try and trace the identity of the owner of this jacket. 

SG51 Feature by TODAY Newspaper

Deeply honoured to be featured by TODAY Sports, on the occasion of our Nation's 51st birthday!

http://m.todayonline.com/sports/putting-together-singapores-sporting-history-piece-piece

Full page print story in 

TODAY Newspaper

 10th August 2016

Yes! I'm Zee and I am passionate about our nation's rich sporting history. Singapore may be relatively young, compared to the rest of ASEAN & the world, but we have come a long way!

From Badminton stalwarts Wong Peng Soon & Ong Poh Lim clinching the Thomas Cup in 1949, to Neo Chwee Kok flying our flag high at the inaugural 1951 Asian Games & the 1952 Helsinki Games and to Legend Tan Howe Liang lifting Singapore to a silver lining at the 1960 Rome Olympics, there is much to be proud about... #redwhite #OurTeamSG

I'm really keen to help your organization rediscover & honour its illustrious past, so that you can fully appreciate the present and future! Contact me at zaher.wahab@gmail.com

To see what I have done, in collaboration with the Singapore Swimming Association in April 2016, click here:

www.honouryourpast.blogspot.sg/2016/04/a-successfully-run-exhibition.html?m=1

SG51 Post - Remembering LKY (Father of Modern Singapore)

On the eve of our nation's 51st birthday, let us take some time to remember our founding Prime Minister - Mr Lee Kuan Yew - without whom there will not be the Singapore that we are all so proud to call home...

Let's go back into time - some 50 years ago - and feel the stirring words of LKY...

Date: 5th February 1966
Location: Chinese Swimming Club
Background: Independent Singapore, less than a year old, had turned in a fine sporting performance at the 3rd SEAP Games held in December 1965.

11 year old swimming wonder, Pat Chan, on her SEAP Games debut swept 8 golds.

Pat Chan, Tay Chin Joo (SEAP Games' youngest gold medallist at 10 years old) and the rest of the swim team accounted for a lion's share of the (18 of 26) Gold Medals won by Singapore at the 3rd SEAP Games... Athletics won 3 Golds, Shooting 2 Golds, 1 each for Judo, Water polo & Weightlifting.

A fine start for independent Singapore!

Info-graphics courtesy 

of the Straits Times

"The very basis of our survival is politics; and sports is one of the ways in which you inculcate that physical discipline and stamina which alone can give you high performance... "
                                              -PM Lee Kuan Yew

His full speech
(Courtesy of National Archives of S'pore):

My small but growing collection

of LKY's thoughts about 

Merger & Separation (circa 1963-1965), printed by the then Ministry of Culture

Evergreen advice 

from Mr Lee Kuan Yew!

Pesta Sukan - Predecessor of the Singapore National Games

With the Singapore National Games (SNG) ongoing till 7 August 2016, in the lead up to our nation's 51st birthday, thought I should do an article on the origins of the SNG, in its original form.

Pesta Sukan, or “Sports Festival”, was the first festival of sports held in Singapore. The event took place from 4 to 21 December 1964.

Pin badge from the 1st edition 

of the Pesta Sukan in 1964.

The festival aimed to encourage higher standards and greater interest in sport as well as to promote racial harmony – significant in light of the communal riots that had taken place in July and September that year.

The festival was declared open by then Minister for Culture S Rajaratnam at Kong Hwa School on 4 December. Singapore was part of the Federation of Malaysia at the time and the festival, which involved some 2,000 sportsmen of whom 800 were from other parts of Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak, helped to foster goodwill through friendly competition.

The festival was sponsored by the Singapore government and supported by 25 voluntary sports organisations. Raffles Institution served as the games village to house the visiting sportsmen. The programme included athletics, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, cycling, football, go-karting, golf, hockey, judo, motor-racing, polo, rugby, sepak-raga (or “sepak takraw” as it is more commonly known today), softball, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and yachting.

The festival ended with a closing ceremony held at the Gay World Stadium on 21 December.

In 1965, Pesta Sukan came under the purview of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Held from 29 July to 9 August 1965, the second edition had an “international atmosphere” due to the participation of foreign teams from 11 other Asian countries.

After Singapore gained independence on 9 August 1965, Pesta Sukan became an annual feature of the National Day celebrations and was known as Pesta Sukan Minggu Merdeka (Sports Festival Week of Independence) from 1966 to 1969.The festival reverted to its original name thereafter.

An Official's badge from the 

1970 edition of Pesta Sukan

The 1970s saw the inclusion of activities geared towards family fun and mass participation such as a water carnival; national walk,  jog  and cycling events; and dragon boat races.

Basketball Tournament 

Participant's pin from

Pesta Sukan 1971

Souvenir programme from 

Pesta Sukan 1971 &

Official Opening of Sports House

Pesta Sukan Theme Song, 

composed by Zubir Said

Commemorative Bag from the 

1979 edition of Pesta Sukan

Softball/Baseball accepted as one of 5 new sports to be contested at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

In a bid to sttract the young to the Olympics, the IOC Executive Board made the decision to accept 5 new sports to be contested at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. They are karate, sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding and baseball/softball.

Of these 5 sports, Baseball/Softball has the longest history in Singapore, where there was a local league in the 1960s, supported by the Expat communities in Singapore.

Brief history of Softball in Singapore

As always, I was trawling Sungei Road today and found this 51 year old souvenir programme, containing rather interesting pictures and information about the Singapore Softball Association.

An online check confirmed the following:

Established:1960
Name:SINGAPORE SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION
Name Changed:1998
New Name:SINGAPORE BASEBALL & SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION

51 years ago but still in pristine condition!

A very young Chan Chee Seng as Parl Sec

Can you spot Best Infielder - Colin Schooling, Class III (Mens)? 

Sounds familiar? Yes! He is father of Joseph Schooling!

I dare say with such a long history of softball since the 1960s, Singapore might just be able to put together a strong women's team, to vie for a spot in Tokyo 2020!

SG51 Post: Singapore Sports & Our Traditional Link to Malaysia

Over the last few weeks, some loyal readers have emailed me to ask why I, to a lesser extent, also collect Malayan/Malaysian sports memorabilia. A good question, which I will attempt to answer here...

With National Day around the corner & as we cheer Team Singapore in the Rio Olympics, we must never forget our sporting past and how far we've come. As I've always maintained: "Honour the past, to fully appreciate the present..."

Since colonial times, Singapore has always been regarded as part of the greater Malayan family. Administratively, we were first part of the Straits Settlements and then a Crown Colony till we attained self-governance in 1959.

Sports wise, we competed as something like a State Team with our brethren in Peninsular Malaya & North Borneo in Athletics, Badminton, Football etc (just to name a few) but fortuitiously we were admitted as a full member of the IOC in 1947 (not sure how we did it, with City status) and was thus eligible to compete apart from Malaya.

In fact, Singapore's 1st Olympics was in 1948 London whereas Malaya first competed in the Olympics in Melbourne, 1956. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics though, Singapore & Malaya put up a joint Malaysian team which was very strong sports wise!

Malayan/Malaysian sporting magazines featuring Singapore - 1956 till 1993 (Athletics / Cycling / Football)

Notice the coat of arm of colonial

Singapore on the left (next to "Amateur")

A.T. Rajah was VP of the AAA of Malaya. Asst Commissioner of Police A T Rajah is MOS Indranee Rajah's father! 

Singapore Athletics should really invite MOS Indranee to be one of its Patrons

The Union Jack was used to represent Singapore as our National Flag was only instituted on 3 Dec 1959

Athletics Championships held at Farrer Park, Singapore just a week plus 

BEFORE separation from Malaysia in 1965

1 Country, 2 Prime Ministers - perhaps it was inevitable that Singapore & Malaysia go their separate ways. 

"Flying Doc" M Jegathesan running for Singapore state, alongside C Kunalan & Coach Tan Eng Yoon. Dr Jega is a ACSian!

Vintage sports magazines: More than just a source of sports statistics

First of all, my sincere apologies to all my loyal readers but I've been away the whole of July on buying trips in the SEA region and just had the time to update this blog now.

I've always loved old sports magazines because they give us a glimpse about the high level of sporting pursuits back then.

Many have forgotten Singapore's prowess in the Malaya/Malaysia Cup competion and that Singapore was already a Sports Hub in the 1950s, hosting 3 Thomas Cup Finals and other Asian/World level sporting tournaments...

But these magazines also give us a succint screenshot of that particular era - from hairstyles, to fashion sense and even cultural pursuits...

My full collection of Thomas Cup souvenir magazines from 1949 to 1958

Interesting Thomas Cup Trial Souvenir magazines from 1952

A 1950s advertisement from Raffles Hotel - then and now still a luxury hotel

Sir John Nicol's welcome message. Sir Nicol's name graces Nicol Highway.

The colonial government - given their public school backgrounds - were largely supportive of Sports.

Sir Malcolm MacDonald - a keen supporter of sporting pursuits in Malaya & Singapore

Sir George Thomas - donor of Thomas Cup - in his own words, congratulating the organization of the Tournament in Singapore

A ubiquitous Tiger Balm advertisement from the 1950s. There weren't many full colour advertisements then, due to the high cost but this example was printed 

largely in blue

The Thomas Cup Finals were hosted at the Singapore Badminton Hall thrice - in 1952, 1955 & 1958.. Malaya (incorporating Singapore's Wong Peng Soon & Ong Poh Lim) triumphed in 1952 and 1955 but lost to Indonesia in 1958... Singapore never hosted another Thomas Cup Final ever again