45 Interesting Facts about Dhyan Chand- Magician of Hockey

Dhyan Chand was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad . He was born to mother Sharadha Singh and father Sameshwar Singh. His father was in the British Indian Army, and he played hockey in the army.
Because of his father’s numerous army transfers, the family had to move to different cities and as such Chand had to terminate his education after only six years of schooling.
The family finally settled in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Being in the military, his father got a small piece of land for a house.

Young Chand had no serious inclination towards sports, though he loved wrestling.
Chand joined the Indian Army at the age of 16. The Hindi word Chand literally means the moon. Dhyan Singh used to practice a lot in the evening under the moonlight. So his friend called him “Chand”, as his practice sessions at night invariably coincided with the coming out of the moon.

Between 1922 and 1926, Chand exclusively played army hockey tournaments and regimental games. Indian Army selected Chand for team tour to New Zealand.
The team won 18 matches, drew 2 and lost only 1, receiving praise from all spectators. Returning to India, Chand was immediately promoted to Lance Naik.

Indian Hockey Federation(IHF) made preparations to send its best possible team for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. In 1925, IHF an select India’s national field hockey team during Inter-Provincial Tournament .
After trial matches between various hopefuls, the Olympic team (including Chand as center-forward) was announced and assembled in Bombay.
Finally, on 24 April, the team arrived in Amsterdam to embark on a tour of the Low Countries. In all the pre-Olympic matches against local Dutch, German and Belgian teams, the Indian team won by large margins.
In the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics, the Indian team won its country’s first Olympic gold medal. Chand was the top scorer of the tournament, scoring 14 goals in 5 matches.
On returning to India, thousands of people at the Bombay harbour welcomed the team, compared to the three people who had seen them off.
The army posted Dhyan Chand to North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan). So, he was cut off from the national hockey.

Three years later, Authority selected a new Olympic team during the Inter-Provincial Tournament; the IHF wrote to the Army Sports Control Board to grant Singh leaves to participate in the nationals. His platoon refused.
However IHF selected Chand for the Olympic team without any formalities. The rest of his teammates however, had to prove their skills in the Inter-Provincial Tournament.
In the Los Angeles final on 11 August, India played against hosts USA. India won 24-1, a world record at that time (until it was broken in 2003), and once again clinched the gold medal. Chand scored 8 times, Roop Singh 10, Gurmit Singh 5 and Pinniger once.
In fact, Chand along with his brother Roop, scored 25 out of the 35 goals scored by India.
In 1933, Chand’s home team, the Jhansi he Heroes participated in and won the Beighton Cup, which he considered the most prestigious of Indian hockey tournaments.
The Heroes also won the Lakshmibilas Cup tournament, which was open only to Indian teams. In 1935, they successfully defended their Beighton Cup title, though lost the subsequent year.

In December 1935, the IHF decided to stage the Inter-Provincial tournament to select the Olympic team. Army denied Chand the permission to leave his platoon, though IHF once again selected him without formalities.
The final team assembled in Delhi on 16 June and departed for Marseilles on 27 June. They arrived on 10 July, and after an uncomfortable journey in third-class compartments, reached Berlin on 13 July.
Thus, India and Germany were to clash in the 1936 Berlin Olympics field hockey final on 19 August.

The German team was successful in restricting the India side to a single goal until the first interval. After the interval, the Indian team launched an all-out attack, easily defeating Germany 8-1, incidentally the only goal scored against India in that Olympic tournament.
Chand top-scored with 3 goals, Dara scored 2 and Roop Singh, Tapsell and Jaffar one each.
Overall, in 3 Olympic tournaments, Chand had scored 33 goals in 12 matches.

After returning from Berlin, Chand joined his regiment. Between 1936 and the commencement of the War in 1939, he largely confined himself to army hockey, with one visit to Kolkata to take part in the Beighton Cup tournament in 1937.
Towards the closing phases of the war, Chand led an army hockey team which toured around the battlefields in Manipur, Burma, the Far East and Ceylon.
In early 1948, Chand decided to gradually phase out his involvement in ‘serious hockey’.
He played exhibition matches, leading a Rest of India side against state teams and the 1948 Olympic team which defeated Chand’s side 2-1, even though an aging Chand scored his side’s lone goal.
Chand’s last match was leading the Rest of India team against the Bengal side. The match ended in a draw.
He scored over 400 goals in his career, from 1926 to 1948.
Chand retired from the army in 1956 aged 51, with the rank of Major.

Chand’s autobiography, Goal!, was published by Sport & Pastime, Madras in 1952.
The Government of India honoured him the same year by conferring him the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour.
After retirement, he taught at coaching camps at Mount Abu, Rajasthan. Later, he accepted the position of Chief Hockey Coach at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, a post he held for several years.
Chand spent his last days in his hometown of Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
However, he was short of money and was badly ignored by the nation. So his last few days were very sad.
Once he went to a tournament in Ahmedabad and they turned him away not knowing who he was.
The Doctor diagnosed him with liver cancer. His family admitted him to a general ward at the AIIMS, New Delhi.
Chand died on 3 December 1979 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.
His family cremated him at the Jhansi Heroes ground in his hometown, after some initial problems in getting clearance. His regiment, the Punjab Regiment, accorded him full military honours.

Chand’s birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day in India. The President gives away sport-related awards such as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and Dronacharya Award on this day at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, India.
The Government of India renamed The National Stadium, Delhi to Dhyan Chand National Stadium in 2002 in his honour.
The management of Aligarh Muslim University named a hostel after him.
The British Government named an Astroturf hockey pitch, at the Indian Gymkhana Club in London, after Indian hockey legend Dhyan Chand.

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