Prithipal Singhਪ੍ਰਿਥੀਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ

Prithipal Singh (28 January 1932 to 20 May 1983) was an Indian field hockey halfback from Nankana Sahib who won a medal at three successive Olympic Games: silver at Rome in 1960, gold at Tokyo in 1964 and bronze at Mexico City in 1968. A feared penalty corner specialist, he was the first hockey player to receive the Arjuna Award, in 1961, and he later received the Padma Shri in 1967. At Tokyo he scored 11 of India's 22 goals, the tournament in which India beat Pakistan in the final to regain the Olympic title.

Early life and Partition

Prithipal Singh was born on 28 January 1932 in Nankana Sahib, then in British India and now in Pakistan. His father, Sardar Wadhawa Singh Chandi, was a school teacher and an agriculturist. Prithipal spent his childhood in Nankana Sahib and took his early education there.

The Partition of India in 1947 forced the family to leave their home and move to East Punjab. He continued his studies at Government Agricultural College in Ludhiana, where he earned a Master of Science degree in agriculture in 1956. He did well in his studies, winning merit scholarships, and the college gave him its Roll of Honours for his all round record in sport and education.

Hockey came early. He played for the college team from 1950 to 1956 and captained it in his final year. The college game was his first stage, and it shaped the defender he became: strong, disciplined and hard to get past.

From college hockey to Punjab Police

On finishing his degree in 1956, he joined Punjab Police as an inspector in June that year and began playing for the police team and for Punjab. He first came to wider notice at the National Hockey Championship in Bombay in 1957, playing for Punjab as a full back.

His first international cap came on 28 June 1959, against Kenya in Nairobi, on India's tour of East Africa. Later that year he toured Europe with the Indian team, playing at the Munich festival in Germany, where he was judged the best full back in the world.

He was part of the Punjab Police team that won the National Championship in Calcutta in 1959, Hyderabad in 1961 and Trivandrum in 1962, and of the Punjab team that won the national title in Bhopal in 1962.

Why was Prithipal Singh called the King of the short corner?

Prithipal played as a halfback in defence, but his fame came from the penalty corner. He had powerful wrists, sharp reflexes and long, strong arms, and his hits from the top of the circle were among the hardest in world hockey. Commentators called him the King of the short corner, and the New Zealand Evening Post wrote in 1961 that to face the fury of his hit was to risk one's life.

Rome 1960 showed why. In his first Olympics he scored two hat tricks, against Denmark and the Netherlands, finished as the top scorer of the tournament and was judged the best full back. India took silver, losing the final to Pakistan.

The goals kept coming. India won silver at the Asian Games in Jakarta in 1962, and in the Ahmedabad international tournament Prithipal scored the clinching goals in the final against West Germany.

Three Olympics, three medals

In 1963 he resigned from Punjab Police and joined the Indian Railways Police, playing for their team. The Indian Hockey Federation's selectors left him out of the national side that year, and the press protested loudly, asking whether he had suddenly become unwanted after leaving the police. The Railway Police team went on winning national tournaments, and the selectors had to bring him back.

Tokyo 1964 was his finest hour. India regained the Olympic title by beating Pakistan 1-0 in the final, and Prithipal scored 11 of India's 22 goals in the tournament. The radio commentator Melville de Mellow wrote that he was like the Rock of Gibraltar. In the final, his thunderous penalty shot in the second half was stopped on the line by a Pakistani defender, and a team mate scored from the resulting penalty stroke to give India the lead.

Two years later he was part of the Indian team that won gold at the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1966, India's first Asian Games hockey gold. In 1967 he captained India against the visiting German and Dutch teams and led the side to victory at the Madrid hockey festival.

At Mexico City in 1968 he was joint captain with Gurbux Singh, and India took bronze. He finished as the tournament's top scorer once again, and with medals of all three colours he became one of only two hockey players at the Olympics to have won gold, silver and bronze.

Honours and later life

The honours came early and stayed with him. In 1961 he became the first hockey player to receive the Arjuna Award, presented by President Rajendra Prasad. In 1965 the Railways gave him the Railway Minister's Medal as the best railway sportsman. In 1967 President Zakir Husain presented him with the Padma Shri for his contribution to world hockey.

He retired from playing after the Mexico Olympics. For a time he chaired the Indian Hockey Federation's selection committee, and in 1974 he travelled with the Indian team as an observer to the World Cup in Malaysia, where India won the title.

In 1968 he returned to his old college, by then part of the new Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, as director of sports and director of student welfare. He stayed in that work for the rest of his life, running the university's sport and looking after its students.

Death and legacy

On 20 May 1983 Prithipal Singh was shot dead on the campus of Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana. He was 51. The murder remains unsolved. Some reports at the time said he was caught in a clash between rival student groups, while others linked the killing to his strict discipline as the man in charge of student welfare. What is certain is that the university lost one of its best known figures in broad daylight on its own campus.

His name has not faded from Punjab hockey. The hockey stadium at Punjab Agricultural University is named the Olympian Prithipal Singh Hockey Stadium, and it still hosts tournaments in his memory. A docudrama film about his life, Prithipal Singh, was released in 2015.

He is remembered as a player who joined the great line of Punjab defenders and gave India its hardest shot from the penalty corner. Three Olympics, three medals and a place among the finest halfbacks the game has seen: that is the record he left behind.