India might have knocked out of men’s hockey world cup 2018, but here are some interesting facts about Indian Hockey you probably didn’t know:
1. IHF stands for Indian Hockey Federation. It was formed on November 7, 1925 at Gwalior.IHF stands for Indian Hockey Federation. It was formed on November 7, 1925 at Gwalior.
2.India joined the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in 1928. Indian thus became the first non-European nation to participate in FIH.
3.Indian Hockey Teams were the first Indian sports team to play in the foreign land of Australia/New Zealand in 1926.
4. In 1928, it played in Europe while in 1932 it participated in USA/Japan.
5. Indian Hockey Team was the first sports team to do around the world tour in 1932. They played in Malaya, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Colombo, Omaha, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin and Budapest.
6. All India Women’s Hockey Federation was formed in 1947. IHF organize the National Hockey Championship every year since 1944.
7. In 1928, India participated in the Olympics for the first time in Amsterdam. It won the Gold Medal.
8. In Olympics, India has won 8 times the Hockey Title. India played the first Hockey World Cup in Barcelona in 1971. In this World Cup, India Stood 3rd. In 1975, India won the Hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The largest victory margin in a pool match was achieved by India. The match was against United States of America in 1932 Olympics.
9. India has to its credit the largest number of consecutive victories. It had 30 victories from 1928 to 1960.
10. Only 5 foreigners have coached the Indian Hockey Team. They were from Australia, Spain and Germany.
11. Sansarpur near Jalandhar in India is known for producing the 9 Olympians. These 9 Olympians were Gurmit Singh, Udham Singh, Gurdev Singh, Darshan Singh, Jagjit Singh, Balbir Singh, Tarsem Singh, Ajitpal Singh and the Balbir Singh – Punjab.
12. India’s oldest hockey tournament is the Beighton Cup started in 1895, which has been conducted continuously since then even during the world wars.
13. Balbir Singh Sr., former Indian player, holds the Guinness World Record for scoring the maximum number of goals in Olympic hockey finals. He scored 5 goals.
14. Dhanraj Pillai is the only Indian player who has participated in 3 world cups, 3 Olympics and 4 Asian games.
15. The Sikh community has been an integral part of Indian Hockey Team since 1928. It was used to be like, ‘Singh initiated the move. After dodging past the defender, Singh passed the ball to Singh who centered it to Singh and Singh scored the goal with a reverse flick’ is a well-known dispatch wrote by the foreign journalist. This shows the commonness of the surname ‘Singh’. Also, Singh is the most common surname associated with the Indian Hockey Team.’
16. As England were afraid of losing the match to one of their present ruled country India, they never participated in any hockey Olympics from 1928 to 1947.