Amongst the very few sports that have been dominating the entire scenario of the Indian sport, the game of Hockey is undoubtedly one of the foremost. Like in the other fields of Indian sport, this game has also dominated the winners` list of the very highly honourable sports award named as the "Arjuna Award" and this domination of the game of Hockey started from the very first year of the award`s inception in the year of 1961. In that year N. Lumsden and P. Singh became the winners of the award. However, there was a gap in the very next year of 1962 and in 1963, Charanjit Singh won the award and started the run again. After S. Laxman received the award in the year of 1964, E. Britto and Udham Singh jointly won the award in 1965.

The game of Hockey had a glorious presence in the winner`s list of the award in the year of 1966 when three Hockey players claimed the award in the same year. These players were Sunita Puri, Gurbaksh Singh and V.J. Peter. Then in 1967, Harbinder Singh and Mohinder Lal jointly won the award. After them, Cadet Balbir Singh won it in 1968 and he game of Hockey again had a winner less year in 1969 before Ajit Pal Singh became the winner of the "Arjuna Award" in the year of 1970. The following two years had only one winner each for the game of Hockey as P. Krishnamurthy in 1971 and Michael Kindo in 1972. There were two Hockey players who became successful to win the award again in the year of 1973 in the names of Dr. O. Mascarenhas and M.P. Ganesh.

In the following few years, there was a regularity on behalf of the Hockey players to win the "Arjuna Award" in pairs. In 1974, the winners were A. Kaur and Ashok Kumar and R. Saini and B.P. Govinda did win the award in the year of 1975. In the years of 1977-78 Capt. Harcharan Singh and L.L. Fernandes were the joint winner. There were two winners again in 19979-80 when R.B. Mundphan and V. Bhaskaran won it. In the years of 1980-81, Md. Shahid and Eliza Nelson became successful to win the award and in 1981, Versha Soni was the sole winner of the award on behalf of the game of Hockey. After that year another winner less year came for the Hockey players in 19982 and in 1983, Zafar Iqbal won the award. Rajbir Kaur and P. Maya Sonia followed him successfully to win the award in the years of 1984 and 1985 respectively. Panda Muthanna and S. Maney also won the award in the same year of 1985.

From the year of 1986, there started a kind of irregularity on behalf of the Hockey players as far as winning the "Arjuna Award" is concerned. After J.M. Carvalho won the award in 1986, the following year was without any winner. Then again in 1988, M.P. Singh became the winner and the following year that is 1989 saw Pragat Singh as the winner. In the year of 1990, Jagbir Singh won the award and the following year was winner less again. Then in 1992, Mervyn Fernandes was the winner and after a gap in the year of 1993, Jude Felix Sebastian won the award again in 1994. After such an irregularity in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" for the Hockey players, the glorious days of Hockey again began to come back from the year of 1995 when famous Hockey player Dhanraj Pillay and Mukesh Kumar won the award combinedly. In 1996 also, two Hockey players won the award in the names of A.B. Subbaiah and Ashish Kumar Ballal. The number of winners increased to three in 1997 when Harmik Singh, Rajinder Singh and Surinder Singh Sondhi won the award.

The year of 1998 saw the real domination of the game of Hockey in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" as in that year ten Hockey players won the award. The list of the players includes Late S. Surjit Singh, Lt. Col. (Retd.) Haripal Kaushik, Md. Riyaz, Ms. Pritam Rani, B.S. Dhillon, Baldev Singh, Maharaj Krishna Kaushik, Ramandeep Singh, V.J. Phillips and Ms. S. Omana Kumari. In the following year the number of winners decreased in a great way and the sole winner of the award in that year was Balbir Singh Kullar. However, the year of 2000 again saw a number of Hockey players as the winners of the "Arjuna Award". Six players won the award that year that include Capt. R.S. Bhola (Retd.), Ms. Madhu Yadav, Ms. Tingonleima Chanu, Jalaluddin Rizvi, Jalaluddin Rizvi, Baljeet Singh Saini and Balkishan Singh.

In the second year of the new millennium that is in 2001, two Hockey players like Ms. Sita Gusain and Dilip Kumar Tirkey won the award and in the year of 2002, Ms Mamta Kharab and Shri Gagan Ajit Singh became the joint winner. In the following two years of 2003 and 2004 also, there were two Hockey players who became successful to win the "Arjuna Award". Amongst them, Ms. Suraj Lata Devi and Devesh Chauhan won it in 2003 and Deepak Thakur and Innocent Helen Mary won the award in 2004. In 2005, the only Hockey player who won the award was named as Viren Rasquinha.In 2007, Jyoti Sunita Kulu received the Arjuna Award for Women hockey.

The names and the performances of the Indian Hockey players as far as the "Arjuna Award" is concerned and that have been discussed so far in this article is quite evident that though not that much like the Athletics, the game of Hockey has also dominated the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" since its inception quite comprehensively. This fact also reveals the truth that the games of Athletics and Hockey are amongst the all time top two games of Indian sports history.