Balbir Singh Sr: Magician on the field, storyteller off it

NEW DELHI: “As our national anthem was being played and the tricolour was going up, I felt that I too was flying with the flag. It was a proud moment for all of us when we defeated Britain, which had until a year ago ruled India for a long period, on their own turf. The event happened 70 years ago, but it feels like only yesterday.”
These were Balbir Singh Sr’s words back in 2018 when this reporter last met him at the Chandigarh Press Club, where a commemorative function was held celebrating India’s 1948 Olympics gold medal in hockey. Balbir Singh Sr was the chief guest. This was one of the several meetings over a period of seven years. Often, they happened at Balbir Sr’s Sector 36 C (Chandigarh) residence, where he regaled us with anecdotes that were etched in his memory as if they had transpired a week back.
He used to welcome with a gentle smile that peeped out of his flowing white beard and moustache. As we did pairi pauna (touching his feet) asking for his blessings, Balbir Sr used to say, Tuhaada ki haal hai… hor ki chaalda (How are you? What’s going on these days?) – both questions following each other. Then followed his stories – and they were a bagful. The conversations used to last hours – one such went on for five hours – but seldom did he tire. His favourite revolved around the 1948 Olympic triumph.
As Balbir Sr left this world for the heavenly abode, this reporter brings his life to TOI readers through the stories and anecdotes that were told over a decade before his death.
Widely regarded as the greatest-ever centre forward, Balbir Singh Sr was not just a giant of Indian hockey, but world hockey too.
Born to Karam Kaur and Dalip Singh Dosanjh on December 31, 1923 (on official documents his birth date was October 10, 1924) at Haripur Khalsa village in Punjab’s Jalandhar district, Balbir completed his schooling from the Dev Samaj High School and DM College — both in Moga. His father, a freedom fighter and an educationist from Powadra village in Phillaur, shifted his family to Moga for Balbir’s education.
Tryst with hockey
Balbir’s love for hockey started when his father gifted him a hockey stick. The game grew on him after watching a newsreel on India’s Olympic win at the 1936 Games. Young Balbir was mesmerised by the magical skills of hockey maestro Dhyan Chand. Balbir started as a goalkeeper before moving up as a full-back and eventually a centre forward.

When he failed his Class X exams, Balbir’s father sought help of a friend, Prof RS Gill, a lecturer at Lahore’s Sikh National College. He offered Balbir full scholarship, including boarding and lodging, and a spot in the SNC hockey team. In Lahore, Balbir’s speed and unmistakable precision in scoring goals promoted the Sikh National College team to the first division from second division. It was here he met his future wife Sushil Sandhu, a resident of Model Town, Lahore.
In 1942, Balbir moved to Amritsar and began training under Harbail Singh — the coach at Amritsar’s Khalsa College. In 1942-43, he was selected to represent Punjab University and was a key member of the team that won three consecutive all-India inter-university titles from 1943 to 1945, the last under Balbir’s captaincy.
Selected for the undivided Punjab squad — consisting of players from Punjab, Sindh, Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan — Balbir helped Punjab get the better of a strong Bombay squad by a solitary goal at the Bombay Hockey Association grounds in Churchgate during the last national championship under British rule.
Impressed by Balbir, Sir John Bennett, the then inspector-general of Punjab Police, wanted him to play for the Punjab Police hockey team and offered him the post of assistant sub-inspector. Unwilling to join the police that had jailed his father and other freedom fighters, Balbir joined the Central Public Works Department hockey team. An angry Sir John sent a team of police officers to arrest Balbir when he saw his photo in one of the daily newspapers and got to know that he was playing in New Delhi.
Balbir found police officers with handcuffs at his doorstep, he was arrested and taken to Jalandhar. Sir John gave him two options — play hockey for Punjab Police or go to jail. Balbir chose hockey. He ran away multiple times in protest, but was handcuffed and brought back every time.

Balbir’s stick-work got six national titles for Punjab Police (1946, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1954), besides two runners-up trophies in 1952 and 1953. Balbir married his college sweetheart Sushil Sandhu in 1946.
Two of his closest friends in the Punjab team, Shah Rukh and Col AIS Dara, helped Balbir and his wife reach Ludhiana when communal violence flared up in Lahore in 1947. Dara, himself, drove them out of Model Town in Lahore.
Balbir resumed his duties with the Punjab Police in Ludhiana as an inspector at Sadar thana and witnessed the horrors of the Partition. He used to get calls regarding fires, killings, abductions and loot almost every hour.
The golden hat-trick
Independent India's first Olympic gold coincided with the tragedy of Partition. The Punjab team had totally changed by then as a large number of players including Balbir's friends Shah Rukh, Dara, Masood, Maqbool Hashmat, Azam, Aziz, Anwar Beg and Khurram left for Pakistan.
Punjab, which barely had a team to field, lost the 1948 Nationals to Bombay. A probable list of 39 was chosen for the 1948 London Olympics and no player from Punjab made it to the list. It was only after intervention of Dickie Carr, who was part of the 1932 Olympic gold medal-winning team, that Balbir made it to the 20-member squad for the 1948 Olympics.
When the Indian team arrived in England, Balbir was startled to see Sir John receive them at Heathrow. It was Sir John’s crucial piece of advice that helped Balbir. He told Balbir not to wait for the ball and instead make an effort to reach for it as grounds in the UK were slow unlike India.
Balbir wasn’t an automatic choice in the playing eleven and he got his chance in the second game when a player reported sick. He displayed brilliant stick-work to score six goals, including a hat-trick, and Argentina was routed 9-1. Curiously, he was rested against Spain and in the semifinal against Holland. That’s when a number of foreign and Indian fans escalated the matter to VK Krishna Menon, India’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom. It was only after Menon’s intervention that Balbir got a place in the team for the final.
Balbir was instrumental in India defeating Britain 4-0 in the final. He netted twice in the first half to fashion the triumph; and despite playing just two of India’s six matches, he emerged as the tournament’s joint-highest scorer. The resounding victory delivered a first major sporting triumph to a country that had achieved independence the previous year. It was the first time that the flag of independent India was hoisted at a world sporting meet.

In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Balbir was vice-captain in a strong team led by KD Singh. Balbir was India’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony and displayed sparkling form throughout the Games.
Against Britain in the semifinal, he scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 win for India. In the final match against the Netherlands, Balbir was simply unstoppable, slotting the ball past Dutch goalkeeper five times. India won the final 6-1, as Balbir set a new Olympic record for most goals scored by an individual in an Olympic final in men’s hockey. The record still stands to this day. In total, Balbir racked up nine of India’s 13 goals at the Helsinki Olympics.
Balbir’s final appearance as a player at the Olympic Games was in 1956 in Melbourne, where he was the Indian captain. After scoring five goals in the opening game of the tournament against Afghanistan, who were thumped 14-0, Balbir broke a finger and had to sit out till the semifinals. Plastering his broken finger and in extreme pain, he played against Germany in the semifinal, which India won 1-0. The final against Pakistan was bitterly fought, but India managed to win the gold by 1-0.
India’s run of six consecutive Olympic gold medals in men’s hockey came to an end in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Balbir had been left out of the Indian squad just before the Olympics, even though he was fit and was still scoring goals. Instead of sending him to Rome, Balbir was appointed to the selection committee and one of the national selectors told him, ‘Why don’t you become a selector instead of a player?’ Balbir didn’t protest, and India lost the final to Pakistan that year by 0-1.
Balbir was conferred the Padma Shri in 1957, the first sportsperson to get the country’s fourth-highest civilian honour. After winning silver in the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games, he called time on his extraordinary career.

In various roles
Balbir made his debut as an administrator and helped set up the sports department for the Punjab government in 1961.
Balbir also served as manager and chief coach of the Indian team on different occasions. At the 1971 World Cup, India managed to grab a bronze medal under his coaching. He was asked to manage the Indian team for the 1975 World Cup that was held in Kuala Lumpur. India, under the leadership of Ajit Pal Singh, won the gold by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan 2-1 in the final.
In 1982, Balbir Singh Sr lit the flame at the 1982 Delhi Asian Games. He was declared the best Sikh hockey player ever in 2006 and Hockey India honoured him with the Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Lost memorabilia
In 1985, Balbir was approached by a representative from Sports Authority of India (SAI) to hand over all his medals and memorabilia for a sports museum. Unsuspectingly, he handed over 36 medals, his 1956 captain’s blazer and hundreds of rare photographs. It was only in 2008 that his family realised that no museum had been set up and all his belongings were lost. Multiple inquires and many years later, there’s still no sign of them.
After trying the RTI route since 2012, Balbir’s family discovered that SAI never had his belongings. In 2017, SAI and the National Institute of Sports (NIS) promised to file an FIR about Balbir’s belongings. Instead, they filed only a missing article report, which didn’t warrant a police investigation. The legend never got to see his lost memorabilia again.
Balbir Singh Sr’s last wish was to see India winning the Olympic gold once again. Hopefully, the Indian team will fulfill the legend’s final desire in the future.