Balbir Singh Sr. was arguably one of the greatest hockey players to emerge out of India and was born on October 10th in a village named Haripur Khalsa in Punjab in the year 1924. The veteran hockey player would have completed a century of his lifetime had he been alive.
Often considered as the lynchpin of the Indian hockey team, he helped them to hat-trick of Olympic golds in years 1948, 1952 and 1956. It's worth noting that plenty of his early years went by without his father, who travelled a lot or was jailed. Balbir Singh developed interest in the sport at a tender age of 5 and watched India lift the Olympic gold medal in hockey as a 12-year-old.
Although Balbir started as a goalkeeper, he found his true calling when playing as a striker during a local tournament. The intervention of Dickie Carr, a gold medalist during the 1932 olympics, put him on the plane to London for the 1948 edition in London. Balbir made impression in the tournament, scoring 8 goals in two fixtures, including two in the final against Great Britain at the jampacked Wembley Stadium.
Balbir Singh was named vice-captain of the 1952 Asian Games:
The 1952 Asian Games hosted by Finland saw the striker amass nine goals, including a hat-trick against Great Britain in the semi-finals. Balbir's 5 goals in the final against the Netherlands is amongst the few memorable performances in history.
In 1957, Balbir earned the Padma Shri award and India won the silver in the following year's Asian Games. Balbi Singh died at the age of 96 in Mohali on May 25th, 2020 and the Mohali International hockey stadium was renamed to Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium as an honour of his death anniversary a year later.
