Balbir Singh Senior Biography 
Balbir Singh (Senior) is a legendary hockey player of Indian national hockey team who was a team member of three Olympic gold medals in London (1948), Helsinki (1952) (as Vice-Captain), and Melbourne (1956) (as Captain) Olympics. He has played outstanding matches in the finals of all these tournaments, and guided his team as captain to win a gold at field hockey event at Olympics 1956 held at Melbourne. In 2012 London Olympics, the iconic centre forward was honoured as the only Indian among 16 chosen Olympic legends across modern Olympic history. He is most commonly addressed as Balbir Singh Senior to distinguish from Balbir Singh (born 21 September 1945 in Faisalabad), Balbir Singh Kullar and Balbir Singh Kular, all of them associated with the game of field hockey.
Balbir Singh Senior’s world record for most goals scored by an individual in the men's hockey final of the Olympics still remains unbeaten. He made this record when he scored five goals in India's 6-1 victory over the Netherlands in the gold medal match of the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. For his contributions to the field of Indian hockey, he was conferred with the Padma Shri in 1957. He was also manager and chief coach of 1975 Men's Hockey World Cup, which India won, and the 1971 Men's Hockey World Cup, where India earned a bronze medal. In 2018 Bollywood film Gold, the character played by Sunny Kaushal - Himmat Singh was inspired from Balbir Singh Sr.
Balbir Singh Dosanjh was born on 10 October 1924 in Haripur Khalsa, Punjab into a Sikh family. His talent was first spotted by hockey team coach of his college team, Harbail Singh. He played a key role in grooming the career of Balbir and also insisted to get his admission to Khalsa College in Amritsar in 1942 so that he gets good practice sessions. Singh was selected to represent Punjab University in 1942-1943.
After partition he moved to Ludiana, where he was employed in Punjab Police and played for their hockey team. Singh's first appearance at the 1948 Summer Olympics was in the match against Argentina. Then he got opportunity to play only in the finals, which India won. It was India’s first Olympic gold medal in hockey after Indian independence. Singh scored the first two goals and India won by 4–0. From there on, he wrote a glorious professional career in field hockey, which many youngsters take it as inspiration.
Published: November 29, 2018
Updated: November 29, 2018
