Prithipal Singh Biography 
Prithipal Singh was an Indian field hockey player who was a part of national team. One of the star players of 1960s, he was nicknamed the “King of short corner” by hockey commentators. He played Olympics three times consecutively in 1960, 1964 and 1968, and each time he scored the highest number of goals as a single player. India bagged Silver in Rome (1960), followed by gold in Tokyo (1964) and Bronze in Mexico (1968). In 1961 he became the first Indian hockey player to win an Arjuna Award for sports. For his overall contributions towards the field of Indian sports, government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 1967.
Prithipal Singh was born on 28 January 1932 in Nankana Sahib of the Punjab province. His birth place now belongs to Pakistan. His father Sardar Wadhawa Singh Chandi was a school teacher and agriculturist. His childhood days were spent in Nankana Sahib, and after partition his family relocated to East Punjab. Prithipal Singh was excellent in academics and completed Master’s in agriculture from Ludhiana in 1956. While at college, he represented his college hockey team for many tournaments and also served as team captain. Later he joined Punjab Police as an Inspector and has also played hockey. He played for national team for the first time in 1958 and was a member of the team which toured Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar.
He has the unique honour to represent his country in all the Olympics tournaments of 1960s, and won a medal in all of them. His team also managed to clinch gold, silver and bronze at different Olympics tournaments of 1960s. Prithipal Singh’s name is always counted among country’s best hockey players all-time and a true representation of the glorious golden era of Indian hockey in Olympics and world sports.
Published: January 30, 2019
Updated: January 30, 2019
