Olympic Competitor nr 6823
His name is also spelled Balbir Dosanjh; in India he is also known as Balbir
Senior (*)
B. 1924-10-10, Moga, Punjab, India
Hockey (3 gold)
| 1948 | 1952 | 1956 | HP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hockey | gold | gold | gold | 19200 |
| 19200 |
Center forward of the Indian hockey team that won gold at London, Melbourne
and Helsinki.
At London, he played only two matches but scored 8 of the 13 goals, including
a hat trick and the first 2 of 4 in the final against Great Britain.
At Helsinki he scored 9 of the 13 goals, including all 3 in the semifinal
against Great Britain (a hat trick) and 5 of the 6 in the final against Holland
(and his third Olympic hat trick). Eight of the nine goals, that is 88.88
percent of the total score of a team, in the semifinal and final, by a particular
player is probably a World Record.
At Melbourne, he was captain of the team. He had scored 5 goals in the first
half of the opening match against Afghanistan, when in the beginning of the
second half he got his right hand ring finger badly fractured. Substitution
was not allowed in those days. His injury was kept a well guarded secret.
He did not play the remaining pool matches (Randhir
Singh Gentle deputising as captain) and was brought in for the semifinal
and final simply to sell dummy to the opponents, as he was considered to
be the most dangerous centre forward of the post war era. The team authorities
thought that opposing defenders would concentrate on him, and it would make
things easier for the other attackers. The ruse worked. Independent India
won the third consecutive gold under his captaincy. Consequently he captioned
his autobiography, "The Golden Hat Trick".
He later became chief coach and manager for the Indian hockey team, and won
another gold at the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 1975.
As a Sikh, he suffered from the partition of India in 1948. He was twice
Indian champion with a then still unified Punjabi team in 1946 and '47, but
after independance, Punjab and its hockey team were split between Pakistan
and India. He helped a (half) Punjabi team again to Indian championships
in 1949, '50 and '51, and again in 1954.
(*) There have been a number of "Balbirs" in Indian hockey. Four participated
in the Olympic Games, three of them together in the Mexico Olympics in 1968.
In India they have been distinguished by the departments they served, like
"Balbir Police", "Balbir Railways" and "Balbir Services". Since then, the
elder Balbir is known as Balbir Senior.
He is on the internet
(BalbirSenior@hotmail.com)
and was the first sportsman to contact me at this site. He is very honoured
at being remembered.
From Sansarpur, Punjab, India
Hockey (3 gold, 1 silver)
| 1948 | 1952 | 1956 | 1960 | HP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hockey | gold | gold | gold | silver | 23200 |
| 23200 |
Inside-Left of the Indian Hockey team that won gold at Helsinki, Melbourne
and Tokyo, and silver at Rome. He did not play in the final in '64. He scored
15 goals at Melbourne.
He and Balbir Singh were teammates for Punjab Police,
Punjab and India throughout their careers.
Olympic Competitor nr 6059
written 2002-10-29 - last modified 2011-08-13
This page is part of the site "Full Olympians" by Herman De Wael. See here for a full Introduction.