Lucknow: Who is g.o.a.t.
sport? Two names instantly appear – not surprising, both of the hockey.
Dhyan Chand and Kunwar Digvijay Singh Babu.
Dhyan Chand is one of the biggest ones with abundant stories about the miracle held by his stick.
But no other players affect hockey – or the entire sports spectrum in this case – as Babu did.
After his best years went to World War-II, he played LiveWire in two consecutive gold medal achievements in London and the Olympic Helsinki.
In 1953, he was awarded the Helms Cup.
That means the best sportsmen in Asia and the best hockey players in the world.
It was unprecedented.
And no Indian player can do it since then.
In 1959, he bid on Adieu to the national team.
But it never retired as a player.
The second ining in the last 20 years his life is no less productive for the game.
As a coach, he was a strategist and the first coach to use the Blackboard to explain the movement, said his students Olympian Sujit Kumar.
In the Bronze medal match at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Babu asked the Marriors of BP Govinda to play outside.
Govinda finally scored an equalizer that was very important for the team.
Hockey nurseries he developed above, regardless of NIS, Patiala – two sports hostels and three sports colleges – have produced more than 2,000 national level players.
At least 100 of them have been wearing national colors at various levels.
However, his most important legacy was the legion of the followers he had left behind – a hockey player who tried to imitate him to continue their skills to the next generation.
On February 2, 2022, Babu will be 100 years old.
This will be an important opportunity for worshipers who guarantee the appropriate celebration.
Starting Monday, October 25, Babu’s students and fans, led by KD Singh Babu Memorial Society, will start the 100-day hockey extravaganza who will reach the Grand Finale in February 2.
When preparing special features to pay our tribute to legend, when We asked people who were close to him to come out with their story about Babu, an emotional water door opened.
His fairy tale as a 15-year-old Rookie Lya in Delhi against Olympian Mohammad Husain in 1937; factklores about his magic stick and dribbling; How did he host the national team in Lucknow because he was preparing the 1948 Olympics; How the children of his sports hostel remained his extended family until his last breath.
One of his students remembered the match between Indian Airlines and UP XI.
Babu is a coach he and most boys on his rival team come from a stable sports hostel.
The tips for boys he passed during the part time won them.
Some tell his favorite to choose young talents from small matches in remote places – he saw the future of Olympian Syed Ali in a local match in Nainital.
The list of endless kinqulers …
forty-three years after his tragic death, Titan Hockey continued to inspire.
The next 100 days will give us thousands of reasons to celebrate his life.