Udham Singh who is one of the finest hockey players of India, distinguished himself amongst India`s hockey players during Indian hockey`s golden period. Udham Singh, after Leslie Claudius, was the only hockey player to win 3 gold and one silver medal in the Olympic Games. He was given the Arjuna Award in the year 1965 for his achievements in hockey.
Early Life of Udham Singh
Udham Singh was born on August 4, 1928 in Sansarpur in Punjab. On the outskirts of Jalandhar District, Sansrpur village is well known for producing top hockey players for India. One of them surely was Udham Singh, the centre forwarder in many of India`s matches.
Career of Udham Singh
With his strong skilful playing ability, he was picked up by the strong Punjab Police team to play, which has boasted a number of Olympians. Due to a finger injury Udham Singh missed the 1948 Olympics. He was a pillar of the fearsome Indian team that won consecutive gold medals in the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne. After the 1964 Tokyo Games, Udham Sigh made his departure from Olympic appearance. At that tournament India reversed their previous Olympic final loss to Pakistan to emerge the winners.
Udham Singh, known to be a versatile forward, could even play at left -inside, right -inside, centre forward or click at centre-half position too. This man has consecrated and dedicated his entire life to sports. He still maintains himself as fit as during his time period.
His career spans from 1949 to 1964 and during this period, he led India thrice. The first time was in 1953 when the Indian team went on a tour of Warsaw (Poland) and again secondly in India`s East African and European tours. The third time he led the Indian team on Australian and New Zealand tours.
Udham Singh could have become the only Indian to represent India in five successive Olympic Games. But injury prevented him from acquiring that honour. After retiring from active hockey Udham Singh coached the Indian team. The Indian National Hockey Team participated at the 1967 Olympics held in London. The team won the Silver medal and also won at the1970 Asian Games in Bangkok.
