Prithipal Singh

Prithipal Singh (28 January 1932 – 20 May 1983) was an Indian field hockey player who played as a halfback. He was a member of the India national team that won a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and silver and bronze at the 1960 Rome Olympics and bronze at the 1968 Mexico Olympics respectively.

Singh was nicknamed the 'King of short corner' by hockey commentators. The Evening Post (New Zealand) commented in 1961 that to face the fury of Prithipal's hit is to risk one's life. Another author commented that if Arjuna was the maharathi (great warrior) of the Mahabharata War, Prithipal was the maharathi of the International Hockey game. The first-ever Arjuna Award to a hockey player was conferred upon him in 1961, which was later followed by the Padma Shri in 1967. His father Sardar Wadhawa Singh Chandi was a school teacher and an agriculturist. Prithipal spent his childhood in Nankana Sahib and took his early education there. After the partition of India, the family moved to East Punjab and Prithipal obtained his Master of Science degree in agriculture in 1956 from Agriculture College, Ludhiana.

Singh participated at the 1966 Asian Games held in Bangkok as a team member of the Shankar Laxman squad. This squad won the gold medal at the tournament. In 1967, Singh skippered India against the visiting German and Dutch teams. In the same year Singh captained the Indian team to Madrid, Spain and won the tournament and the gold medal for India. In 1968, Singh was selected as the captain with Gurbakash Singh as the joint captain for the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico. At that tournament, India won the bronze medal, although Prithipal Singh again remained the top scorer in the Olympics.

Tokyo Olympics

In the first half of the final match between India and Pakistan at the Tokyo Olympics, the scoreline was 0-0. In the 6th minute, of the second half, the thunderous penalty shot of Prithipal Singh was taken on foot by the Pakistani defender. Mohinder Pal scored from the resultant penalty stroke and India took the lead. In later half, the Pakistani team started resorting to a rough game and show of force to scare the Indian players in order to win the match. Around the middle of second half, there was a free wielding of hockey sticks. One Japanese newspaper published a picture on its front page showing one Pakistani player swinging his stick towards his Indian opponent. In the same picture, Singh was shown as holding one Pakistani player by the throat and striking his stick into his ankle with right hand. One Pakistani forward nicknamed 'Bola', who was notorious for his rough game and greatly feared by the European players, feared Singh and ceased approaching him. Pakistani player Munir Dar shouted at 'Bola' urging him to be aggressive and neutralize the Indian goal, but 'Bola' is reported to have shot back at Munir Dar: "Can’t do it now man, your dad Prithipal is pitched ahead!". Thus, India defeated its rival and won the gold medal. Of India's total 22 goals scored in the Tokyo Olympics, Singh scored 11. The movie is available on YouTube.