Balbir Singh: News

Balbir Singh Dosanjh was an Indian Hockey player who was the Center Forward in the Indian Hockey team and a three-time Olympic Medalist. He was born on October 10, 1924, and was popularly known as Balbir Singh Senior. In his 11-year-long career, he played 61 matches for India and scored 246 goals. Regarded as the greatest Indian hockey player of all time, some of his notable contributions came in the 1948 London Olympics, the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, India scored 6-1 against the Netherlands out of which five goals were scored by Singh, thus making him an all-time record holder of the maximum goals scored by an individual in the Men’s Hockey final of the Olympics. He had also served as the Chief Coach of the Indian Hockey Men’s team for the 1971 Hockey World Cup, and the 1975 Hockey World Cup. In 1957 he became the first sports personality to be conferred with the prestigious Padma Shri award. In 2015, he was conferred with the Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012, he became the only Indian to be a part of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He is also the author of two books titled The Golden Hat Trick (1977) and The Golden Yardstick: In Quest of Hockey Excellence (2008). He passed away on May 25, 2020, after a prolonged illness. On May 25, 2021, the Indian government renamed Mohali International Hockey Stadium to Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium.