Famous Hockey Players

Major Dhyan Chand

 Dhyan Chand family tree has 5 Olympic gold medals, 1 Olympic bronze, 1 World Cup gold, 1 World Cup silver and 1 World Cup bronze medal.

Dhyan Chand's father, Subedar Sameshwar Dutt Singh, played hockey in the army. He had 3 sons - Hawaldar Mool Singh, Major Dhyan Chand and Roop Singh.

Dhyan Chand won the gold medal in the 1928, 1932 and the 1936 Olympic Games. Dhyan Chand was married to Janaki Devi just before the 1936 Olympics. They had seven sons. They were based in Jhansi.

The eldest son Brij Mohan represented his state in the nationals. The second, Sohan Singh, became a coach. The third, Raj Kumar, was an athlete.

The fourth, and most famous, Ashok Kumar, scored the goal that won India the 1975 World Cup. That remains India's only World Cup title. Ashok Kumar also won a bronze medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics, and a bronze and silver in the 1971 and 1973 World Cup tournaments respectively.

The next son, Umesh Kumar, played for Indian Airlines, and toured Argentina with the airlines team. Another son, Devinder Singh, played for Indian Airlines and also for Bengal.

Dhyan Chand's younger brother Roop Singh won the gold medal in the 1932 and the 1936 Olympic Games. Roop Singh's family was based in Gwalior. His son, Chandrashekhar played hockey for India.

Dhyan Chand had another son, Virender Singh, who was very helpful and cooperative to the author in gathering material for this biography. Roop Singh had another son, Bhagat Singh Baiss, who gave the author old newspaper clippings and photographs of his father.

Udham Singh

Sansarpur village on the outskirts of Jalandhar is well known for producing top hockey players for India. One whose stickwork dazzled and fascinated the people was Udham Singh, the centre forward in many of India's battles. He could have become the only Indian, a Sikh, to represent India in five successive Olympic Games but that was not to be, injury prevented him from acquiring that honour. Now after Leslie Claudius, he is the only Indian player who has donned national colours in four successive Olympics. These were 1952 Helsinki Olympics (under D.S.Babu) , 1956 Melbourne Olympics (under Balbir Singh), 1960 Rome Olympics' (under L. Claudius) and Tokyo Olympics (under Charanjit Singh).

Udham Singh has been known to be a versatile forward. He could play at left-inside, right-inside, centre-forward or click at centre-half position too. This man has dedicated and devoted his entire life to sports and still, he maintains himself as fit as during his heydays. B.S.F. the hockey team full of renowned Olympians such as Ajit Pal, Baldev Singh and others. It is on record that once when his team was trailing in a tournament he got himself into the playing kit and turned the tables.

Before joining the B.S.F. he served in the Punjab Police. One thing which surprises one is how and why so great a player just failed to lead the country in any Asian or the Olympic Games. His hockey career spans from 1949 to 1964 and during this period, he led India thrice, first in 1953 when the Indian team went on a tour of Warsaw (Poland). Secondly Udham was the captain on Indians' East African and European tours in 1959. Last time he led the Indian team on Australian and New Zealand tours. However, giving full recognition and respect to his services which he rendered to the nation;. the Indian Government awarded him the coveted Arjuna Award.

Following is the full chart of his hockey career:
1949 Afghanistan
1952 Helsinki Olympics
1953 (as captain) Warsaw (Poland)
1956 Melbourne Olympics
1958 Asian Games, Tokyo (Japan)
1959 (as captain) East African & European tour
1960 Rome;: Olympics ,
1961. (as skipper) Australia-New Zealand tour
1963 Leon (France)
1964 Tokyo Olympics]

Brett Hull

Chronology

Awards And Accomplishments

Biography

Ken Hitchcock was born in 1951 in Alberta, Canada. His rise through the coaching ranks began with a six-season stint with the Kamloops Blazers in Canada's Western Hockey League in 1984. He then jumped into the NHL as assistant coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. In 1993 he became the head coach of the International Hockey League's Kalamazoo Wings, and in 1996 he returned to the NHL as the head coach of the Dallas Stars.

Hitchcock's strategy emphasized the importance of teamwork, which clashed with the style of some players such as Brett Hull, who joined the Stars in 1998. Hull and Hitchcock sometimes clashed over their approaches to the game, but Hull admitted that Hitchcock forced him to become a better all-around player. Although the Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999, the team declined to renew Hull's contract in 2001. Hull later signed with the Detroit Red Wings, who won the Stanley Cup in 2002.

For the 2002-2003 season, Hitchcock joined the Philadelphia Flyers as head coach. Hitchcock also served as the assistant coach on the Canadian men's hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, where the squad won the Gold Medal.
 

Jaromir Jagr - Czech hockey player

Awards And Accomplishments

Chronology

Jagr was born on February 15, 1972, in Kladno, in what was then Czechoslovakia, the son of Jaromir (a coal mine administrator and farmer) and Anna Jagr. Both his grandparents and parents suffered under the Communist regime that ruled his country at the time. Both of his grandfathers were jailed for some time. When Jagr became a professional, he wore the number 68 in honor of the Prague Spring, the failed 1968 attempt of his countrymen to rid themselves of the Soviets. Playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Czech Jaromir Jagr established himself as one of the greatest, most dynamic scorers in the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 1990s. Though he had a reputation for being temperamental and moody, and letting these aspects negatively affect his game, the right winger was still a star. He won two Stanley Cups with the Penguins his rookie and sophomore seasons, as well as a gold medal with the Czech Republic at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. Jagr forced a trade to the Washington Capitals in 2001, where he did not play as well as he had in Pittsburgh.

Paul Kariya

Paul Kariya, the talented young left wing who is the captain of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, may be best known for his courteous behavior on the ice. However, the two-time winner of the Lady Byng trophy, given to the most gentlemanly player in the National Hockey League (NHL), is also a prodigious scorer and gifted play-maker. Although a serious concussion, a contract dispute, and the Mighty Ducks' in troubles fielding other skilled players have at times hampered Kariya's career, he continues to be a rising star within the NHL.

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments