V. J. Peter Biography 
John Peter, better known as V. J. Peter was a star hockey player in the 20th century. He played Olympics three times and his team managed to get Olympics medals in all these three seasons in which he played as a halfback. Indian national team won the silver, gold and bronze medals respectively in the 1960, the 1964 and the 1968 Olympic Games respectively, and Peter played in all these three. His younger brother Victor Philips is also a hockey player and Olympian who was a member of the 1975 World Cup winning team and bronze medal-winning squad at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
His full name is Victor John Peter, and his name is addressed as John Peter as well as V. J. Peter. He was born in Chennai in 1937. Known his "dribbling skills, ball control and playmaking", he played as a permanent player of Indian national team for more than a decade. He was the best schemer India had produced since K D Singh Babu. Peter was the architect of India's triumph over Pakistan in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics final. Peter was also instrumental in India's gold medal winning campaign at the 1966 Asian Games. The deadly combination of Mohinder Lal, Joginder and Peter during the glorious years of Indian hockey gave some outstanding wins for Indian team, which sport enthusiasts still cheer about.
After retirement, since 1983 he worked as a coach, who trained Indian Bank employees and a few more teams. He also worked in an engineering college as a physical education official. The family which was settled in Chennai occasionally visited Peter at Bangalore, where he was working. Peter has been a part three Olympics and two Asian games, in which India scored medals.
He was employed at Madras Engineer Group, and has represented this team for club tournaments. He has also played for Services. He is credited to construct the backbone of Madras Engineer Group hockey team. But years later, his family became just footnotes of the glorious past. The financial condition of the family has turned worse after the death of Peter in 1998, and the family struggles a lot to make both ends meet. The family received 2000 rupees pension every month for the Arjuna award Peter received in 1967. The amount stopped following Peter’s death.
Published: February 03, 2019
Updated: February 03, 2019
