STORY OF ARMY OFFICER WHO WON THREE OLYMPIC GOLDS FOR INDIA

This is the story of the Indian army officer who brought three consecutive Olympic gold medals for India. This is the story of Major Dhyan Chand and in this article we'll tell you what happened when Hitler called him and how did he broke the world record which earned him the title ''Wizard Of Hockey''.

Birth Name - Dhyan Singh 

Born - 29 August 1905 in Allahabad, India (British India)

Died - 3 December 1979 in Delhi, India

Service - British Indian Army (1922-1956)

Rank - Major

Unit - 1st Brahmans (14 Punjab Regiment)

Major Dhyan Chand was born on 29th of august 1905 in Allahabad, united province of  Agra and Awadh of British India. His father Sameshwar Singh was a soldier in British-Indian army, his family got settled in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh after the retirement of his father. He left his schooling after 6th and didn't had any serious inclination towards sports. He once stated that he don't remember whether he played any hockey before joining the army, but loved wrestling and was often indulged in casual games with his friends in Jhansi.

His real name was Dhyan Singh and there is a interesting story behind addition of Chand to his name. Actually while serving in the army he use to practice hockey mostly during the night time after his duty hours, for this he use to wait for the moon to come out so that the visibility could increase as there were no flood lights in the fields at that time so his friends gave him a new name Dhyan Chand.

(private). That same year a reorganization of army was happened after which the 1st Brahmans became 1/1st Punjab Regiment. Chand played many army hockey tournaments between 1922 to 1926. One day his commanding officer called him and said ''Boy, you are to go to New Zealand'', he was surprised and surprised and couldn't reply, he just gave him a smart salute, as smart as he could.

His team went to New Zealand and won 18 matches, drew 2 and lost 1, the team shot 192 goals of which Chand stored the most. In the end of the tour they also played 2 test matches against New Zealand in which they won the first one and lost the second one by a small margin. After such a fantastic tour he was promoted to Lance Naik for his performance in New Zealand.

After the addition of field hockey in the Olympics, the newly established Indian hockey federation (IHF) was preparing to sent its best possible team for 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. In 1925, an Inter-Provincial tournament was held to select the team, a total of 5 teams participated in that tournament namely - United Provinces, Punjab, Bengal, Rajputana and Central Provinces. Chand was playing for the United Provinces.

In the first game of the tournament, Chand as the center-forward shot the first goal within 3 minutes from the start, the Rajputana did their level best but the United Province emerged victorious with 3-1. After the success of the tournament it was decided to be held after every two years. After playing two more trial matches Dhyan Chand was in the Olympic team as the center-forward, the team was assembled in Bombay. 

The Olympic team then played a match against the Bombay XI and surprisingly lost the game with 3-2, in which both goals were scored by Chand. The team then left for England on 10th march, to play 11 matches against local team as well in the Folkstone Festival in 1927, were the team won each and every match. It was also said that the Britain didn't send his national team to Amsterdam Olympics after facing defeat in the Folkstone Festival.

Finally Chand and team reached Amsterdam made its Olympic debut against Austria, winning with 6-0 Chand scored 3 goals. Next day India defeated Belgium with 9-0, on 20th of may Denmark was defeated by 5-0 with Chand netting 3 goals, two days later Switzerland was defeated in the semi-final match by 6-0 in which Chand shot 4 goals.

The final match was held on 26th of May, between India and Netherland. The most prominent players of Indian team including Feroze Khan, Ali Shaukat and Kher Singh were sick. However, India managed to defeat Netherland with 3-0 in which Chand scored 2 goals. Chand was also the top scorer of the tournament with 14 goals in 5 matches. The team won its first Olympic gold in the the very first tournament, on arrival to India the team was welcomed by thousands at the Bombay harbour, compared to the 3 people who seen them off. 

After 1928 olympic he was posted in Waziristan in the North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan) in a new unit 2/14 Punjab Regiment, as a Naik (corporal). The IHF wrote to army to grant leave to him for the Inter-Provincial Tournament that was being held to select team for the 1932 Olympic but his platoon refused to grant any leave so he was the only player who was selected without any trials.

The Indian Olympic hockey team arrived at San Francisco on 6th of July after a sail of of 6 days and reached Los Angeles 3 weeks before the Olympic opening ceremony, which was held on 30th of July. They played the first match on 4th of August against Japan and won with 11-1. The final match took place on 11th of August between India and United States and India created a world record by winning with 24-1 (which was broken in 2003), Chand scored 8 goals in that final match. 

Coming back to India after 1932 Olympic and other tours he participated in Beighton Cup with his home team, the Jhansi Heroes and won it. He later stated that the final match of Beighton cup between Calcutta Customs and Jhansi Heroes was the best match he ever played. 

In December 1935, the Inter-Provicial tournament was held to select the olympic team and Chand was again selected without any formalities as was denied permission to participate. The team arrived Marseilles on 10 July and reached Berlin on 13 July after an uncomfortable journey in third class compartment. 

The team played a practice match against Germany on 17 july and lost with 4-1. The first match of Indian team was on 5th of august against Hungry which India won with 4-0, the team then won all the other group matches and entered into the Semi-Final and defeated France by 10-0 with Chand scoring 4 goals. The final match was to be held on 19 august between India and Germany, since had faced defeat by germany the team was quite nervous before the final match.

In the first interval the final match the Germans were dominant and Indians were restricted to only one goal but after the interval the team launched an all-out attack and emerged victorious with 8-1. According to newspaper reports Chand scored 4 goals in the final but he claimed only 3.

Impressed by his skills the German leader Adolf Hitler called a meeting with Chand and offered him German Citizenship and rank of colonel in german army but Chand refused. Overall, in three Olympic tournament Chand shot 33 goals in 12 matches.

After the Independence of  India Chand continued his service in army with IEC 3526 as his service number and in 1951 he was honored with the inaugural of the Dhyan Chand Tournament at India's National Stadium. On 29 August 1956, Chand retired as a acting Captain after 34 years of service. 

The Govt. of  India him with Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award in 1956. He later started coaching camp at Mt. Abu in Rajasthan and was then made Chief Hockey Coach at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala. 

During his last days he was in his hometown Jhansi of  Uttar Pradesh, and died on 3th of December  in 1979 due to liver cancer at the AIIMS Delhi. He was cremated with full military honors at the Jhansi Heroes ground by his regiment, the Punjab Regiment.