December 19 is a red letter day in the Indian hockey history

December 19. There is some magic to the date. On this day India won two of its three Asian Games gold. There is another coincidence. Both success at the Asian summit came in the same city, Bangkok – Editor.



DECEMBER 19, 1966: India was defending champions when hockey was introduced at its third edition (1958). Naval Tata, the benevolent chief of the Indian Hockey Federation, had just moved to head the newly formed All India Sports Council. Ashwini Kumar, a boxer in his school days, succeeded him. His team of new officer bearers announced the team for the 1958 Asian Games with Balbir Singh Sr. as captain. It did not go well with KD Singh Babu, who led India to gold at Helsinki Olympics four years ago. He refused to attend the camp. VJ Peter, who would carve a niche for himself filled in the shoes. However, India lost the Asian title to Pakistan. Their match was drawn but Pakistan was declared winner as it had better goal average. India was Olympic champions but not the Asian Champions.