“Journey to greatness can’t be explained, it can only be experienced". – Late. Balbir Singh (Sr) Dosanjh.

Acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the 2012 London Olympics, Late. Balbir Singh Dosanjh aka Balbir Singh (Sr) was named among the World’s 16 Greatest Icons across all Sports. He was amongst the few who took Olympic movement to newer heights, similar to what he said on “Walk the Talk” with Mr. Shekhar Gupta,

"It is really special for someone to experience your team winning & your national flag is going higher & higher in the sky."

Being a sports fanatic & a keen follower, we often come across weird stories & instances that an athlete shares about him/her or their team members. One of the strongholds of Late. Balbir Singh (Sr) was that he was obsessed with hockey - because of the history he has with the sport, and also because his father was obsessed with the National Flag [Source: Hindustan Times].

 

The obsession, which the athletes & sports management professional like to call it the “passion & love for the sport” was so much, that Late. Balbir Sir used to sleep with the hockey stick beside his bed, even till the day he died. The hockey-stick, and playing for India was a dream come true which meant something to him. [Source: “Walk the Talk”]

 

Indian Hockey was a tough competitor of the game, and we have the stature of winning 8 Olympic Gold’s - Amsterdam 1928 (British India), Los Angeles 1932 (British India), Berlin 1936 (British India), London 1948 (India), Helsinki 1952 (India), Melbourne 1956 (India), Tokyo 1964 (India), Moscow 1980 (India). This is equivalent to 32 years of hard work of both the association, the players and the support staff. [Source: Is it really cricket versus other dimensions of sport, in India?]

 

He is known to be the Triple Olympic Gold Medalist from India in the field of Hockey in the London Olympics (1948), Helsinki Olympics (1952) as Vice-Captain, and Melbourne Olympics (1956) as a Captain. The legendary Olympian holds the record for the number of individual goals – five (5), against the Netherlands at Helsinki 1952 – in an Olympic final [Source: olympic.org - Balbir Singh Dosanjh]

 

I feel by now it should be a universal fact that,

"You can take a sport away from an athlete, but you can never take an athlete away from that sport."

Late. Balbir Singh (Sr) was known to be a “team-man” not just working around to be a contributor in the team’s win, but also towards developing a winning culture in the team. One of the famous and most talked instance is when he replaced the usual team chant of ‘jo bole so nihal’ (since it resonated more with players from Punjab) with ‘jo bole so hai, bharat mata ki hai’. [Source: Indian Express]

 

Motivating the team be it a winning situation or when the team is going through the tough times the legendary Olympian knew how to be a great leader & an efficient communicator. Mr. Ashok Kumar member of the Indian team winning the 1975 World Cup & son of Major Dhyan Chand, said “During the 1975 World Cup campaign, he had a unique way of motivating the team. He would always tell us that like Arjun, you have to always concentrate on the target. ‘Always keep thinking about your target, always concentrate on the eye of the fish’. [Source: Hindustan Times]

Thank you for all those memories, 

Thank you for being a Legend and, 

Thank you for being a true bearer of our National Flag & spirit of Sportsmanship.

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