Hockey India launches month-long campaign celebrating the 100 years of Indian Hockey.

Hockey India today launched a month-long campaign leading up to the centenary celebrations on 7th November 2025, a day that marks 100 years of Indian hockey. The first hockey sports administrative body was formed in 1925, on 7th November and in 1928, the Indian team won the first Olympic Gold medal beating Netherlands in Amsterdam. Since then, Indian hockey team has won a total of eight Olympic Gold medals which happens to be the highest number of gold medals by any country at the Olympics till date.

The period between 1928 to 1959 was regarded as the golden era and the resurgence of Indian hockey began in 1998 after a decline in 1980s and 90s. The Bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics captained by Manpreet Singh in 2020 marked the comeback of Indian hockey, with the team repeating the feat in 2024 where they stood on the podium yet again in Paris.

India thus far, has a total 08 Olympic gold medals, 1 silver, 04 bronze at the Summer Games – making hockey a legacy sport in the country. India also has won a World Cup in 1975 and in the Asian Games, has 04 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze medals. The Women’s team too has 7 medals at the Asian Games.

Speaking of the significance of the centenary, Gurbux Singh, the oldest living legend of the sport at 90 years, expressed his absolute joy of being part of this rich, and most decorated sport in India. “To complete 100 years and that too with this level of tremendous achievements at the world level, Indian hockey stands tall in the world of sport and this occasion surely needs to be celebrated in the most befitting manner. We as Indians ought to be proud of this legacy“, stated the maestro, who was given a nickname as ‘professor’ by his Pakistani rivals for being the only player who played wearing spectacles.   

Gurbux has contributed a large part of his life to the sport, having begun his career in 1955 as an aspiring player in his University in Gwalior. He trained under the great Roop Singh of Olympic fame and soon represented Madhya Bharath in 1956 before he made his India debut in 1959. He was part of the team that won the 1964 Tokyo Olympics gold medal.

“It is almost 65 years that I have been associated with the sport and I have lived my best life because of hockey. Personally, the 1964 Olympic gold followed by the 1966 Asian Games gold will always hold a special place in my heart. We regained the world title in 64′ by winning the gold as in those days there was no world cup, the team that won the Olympics would be known as world champions. We later won the Asian Games gold for the first time, beating Pakistan. That was very memorable“, he recalled.

When asked about the greatest rival in the sport over the past 100 years, Gurbux didn’t bat an eyelid to say – India Vs Pakistan! “No doubt that was the greatest rivalry of all-time. Before the partition, we played as one unit and after the partition, no European team came close to the rivalry we shared with Pakistan. The matches were fiercely fought by both teams“, he expressed.

“Personally speaking, there was never any animosity off the field between the two teams. Almost 13 out of the 18 players in Pakistan team were Punjabis who were directly affected by the partition. Mind you, we played the 1966 Asian Games just after the 1965 War. On the field, we saw them as an opponent whom we wanted to beat. I never had the feeling that we were playing Pakistan, but we always played like it was any other match that had to be won, and that is most important“, he concluded.

Team Maverick