During the five days that Somali pirates held Richard Phillips hostage, friends pinned their hopes for his safe release on his athleticism, toughness, and resourcefulness.

Those were qualities that his oldest friends cited most often in newspaper and television interviews conducted during the tense standoff in the Indian Ocean. Many of those people had played alongside the three-sport high school athlete in Winchester, Massachusetts, or knew him as a classmate at Massachusetts Maritime, where Phillips played a season of varsity basketball.

Phillips’ rescue Easter Sunday by the U.S. Navy set off celebrations around the United States, including at his alma mater, a Division III member institution and member of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference.

“This is truly a glorious Easter day,” said Admiral Richard Gurnon, president of Massachusetts Maritime, in a nationally televised news conference after the school sounded its training ship’s whistle upon receiving news of Phillips’ freedom. “This maritime academy has been operating for 118 years and I can’t imagine a day in our history that we’ve been more proud of our graduates than today.”

Phillips transferred to the academy after briefly attending the University of Massachusetts, and played varsity basketball as a sophomore on a team nicknamed – now, somewhat ironically – the Buccaneers.

“He was a sharp guy and a good athlete,” Dan Davis, who graduated from Massachusetts Maritime along with Phillips in 1979 and who served as class president, told The Cape Cod Times. “I’m sure he was able to take a look at the situation and figure a way to get out of it. He always had his wits about him.”

Phillips served in a reserve role for the Buccaneers during the 1976-77 season. According to the academy’s final statistics report submitted at the end of that season to the NCAA Statistics Service, he played in 13 games, averaging 4.3 points per game by hitting 26 of 73 field-goal attempts and five of 12 free throws.

Listed as a 5-10 guard, Phillips also snared six rebounds.

Phillips’ father, Jim, was boys’ basketball coach at Winchester High School, where the coach’s son played year-round on school teams.

“Richard comes from one of the great Winchester families,” Robert Quine, who graduated from Winchester High two years after Phillips but became friends with him as they attended Massachusetts Maritime together, told The Winchester Times. “He’s one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet, but he’s also one of the most competitive guys you’ll meet.”

Another childhood friend, Donald Carey, told The Associated Press that Phillips was tough but modest as an athlete. “He was kind of like Gary Cooper, in a sense,” Carey said, referring to the film star famous for playing such roles as Lou Gehrig (in “Pride of the Yankees”) and World War I Medal of Honor winner Alvin York (“Sergeant York”).

“He played football, he played basketball, he played lacrosse. But he never made a big deal out of being a successful member of any of those teams.”

Gurnon said the school hopes to honor Phillips and Shane Murphy – another academy graduate and first mate on Phillips’ ship, the Maersk Alabama – during National Maritime Day festivities May 22.

Murphy, the ship’s first mate, took command of the vessel after Phillips offered himself up as a hostage, and joined the unarmed crew in repelling four armed pirates’ attempt to hijack the ship. His father, Joseph Murphy, is a Massachusetts Maritime faculty member who teaches an anti-piracy course.

Jim Seavey, sports information director at Massachusetts Maritime, contributed to this story.