Contribution of Sikhs to hockey has always been immense and they have played in every Olympic Games since India entered the competition in 1928 and been a part of every gold medal winning Indian Olympic team since then.

It is not only Indian hockey but international hockey which owes a lot to the Sikhs. Many Asian, African and North American countries emerged on the world hockey scene, thanks to efforts and hard work of certain enthusiastic and energetic Sikh hockey players, administrators and sponsors.

Without going into the history, it may be pertinent to mention here that wherever Sikhs went, both as a part of the British empire or otherwise, they carried with them their game and hockey sticks. Interestingly, these were the British who brought hockey to India, especially in Military Cantonments. This is how Sansarpur, nursery of Indian hockey, earned its name and fame.

Mr Hardial Singh, not only remained chairman of the Kenyan Hockey Union for many years but also headed the African Hockey Federation. He also remained Vice-President of the International Hockey Federation.

This one example illustrates the point I am making. And if Kenya is no more a force to reckon with in international hockey, it is just because that Punjabi expatriates have moved out with lock, stock and barrel either to Canada or the United Kingdom.
 

Same is the case of Tanzania and Uganda which went to Olympics or other FIH tournaments mainly on the basis of strength of Sikh players in their ranks.

If England or Canada made a mark in world hockey in the last few decades, Sikh players must be given their due.

Back in Asia, Malaysia, which continues to among the top six teams in the continent, has always prided itself by including versatile Sikh hockey players. Some other Asian nations, including Singapore and Hong Kong were able to enter the world level tournaments, including the Olympic Games, because of Sikh hockey players.

The first Olympic Games were played in Athens in 1896. The first Olympic Hockey Competition for men was held in London in 1908. After having made its first appearance, hockey was subsequently dropped from the 1912 Stockholm Games, and reappeared in 1920 in Antwerp before being omitted again in Paris in 1924. The Paris organisers refused to include hockey on the basis that the sport had no International Federation.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) was founded in Paris on the 7^th January 1924.  France, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Spain and Switzerland were the founder members. The FIH having been set up and given I.O.C. recognition, hockey was granted re-admission with effect from 1928.

India joined the Olympic movement and played her first Olympics at Amsterdam in 1928. Nine teams participated in the hockey competition with India winning the Gold medal in her first appearance. That winning team included a Sikh from Punjab. And there begins the history of Sikhs in the sport of hockey at Olympic Games where Sikhs have featured in at all the Olympic Games played since then. 

Kehar Singh Gill from Punjab was the first Sikh who was in the Indian team of 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Since then 132 Sikhs (including two women players) have played at Olympic Games, representing eight countries (India, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malaysia, Canada, Hong Kong and Great Britain) and being members of nine Gold medal teams (eight India and one GB), one Silver medal team (India) and three bronze medal teams (two India and one GB).

Sikhs have scored 243 goals at Olympic Games. Gurmit Singh Kullar started the Sikhs scoring at Olympic Games by scoring eight goals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. No Sikh goals came in Berlin but following Balbir Singh Senior and Tarlochan Singh Bawa’s goals at the 1948 London Olympic Games, Sikhs have scored goals at every Olympic Games since then.

Kehar Singh was followed by Colonel Gurmit Singh Kullar from Sansarpur in the 1932 London Olympics and Gurcharan Singh Garewal in the 1936 Berlin Olympic.

There followed a gap of 12 years due to the Second World War. India got her Independence, the nation of Pakistan was formed and Punjab, the hub of hockey in India, was divided into two.

It was under these circumstances that Sikhs rose to fame.  In the 1948 London Olympics the Indian team included three Sikhs- Balbir Singh Senior, Tarlochan Singh Bawa and Grahanandan ‘Nandy’ Singh. Balbir made his Olympic debut by scoring six goals against Argentina and two goals in the Final against Great Britain. Tarlochan Singh scored a goal in the pool match against Spain and a penalty corner goal in the Final against Great Britain.

At the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, Dharam Singh Sn and Udham Singh joined Balbir and Grahanandan. Balbir Singh scored 9 of India’s 13 goals at these Games. Harbail Singh was India’s coach.

1956 Melbourne Olympic Games were the start of Sikh domination in world hockey. India was captained for the first time by a Sikh, Balbir Singh.  The Indian team included Bakshish Singh, Gurdev Singh Kullar, Udham Singh Kullar, Amit Singh Bakshi, Hardyal Singh Garchey and Balkrishen Singh Grewal. The team was coached by Harbail Singh. Gian Singh was one of the International Umpires at these Games. Udham Singh was the top scorer in the Games with 15 goals.

Melbourne Games saw the emergence of Kenya for the first time. The team captained by Surjeet Singh Deol and coached by Mahan Singh included eight Sikhs. Mahan Singh also umpired at these games.

Malaysia also emerged as a hockey playing nation at these games and had a Sikh player, Gian Singh, in their team.

The sixties saw players like Prithipal Singh, Joginder Singh and Jaswant Singh emerge at the Rome Olympics whilst Kenya again fielded eight Sikhs which included Avtar Singh Sohal and Surjeet Singh Panesar who went on to play in four consecutive Olympic Games with Avtar Singh, captaining three Olympic Games.

The 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games saw Hong Kong take part for her only Olympic Games hockey competition. That team included 3 Sikhs; Sarinder Singh Dhillon, Harnam Singh Grewal and Kuldip Singh. India re-gained the Gold that they had lost to Pakistan in Rome and Prithipal Singh was the top scorer in the Games with 10 goals.

Gurbax Singh and Prithipal Singh were the joint captains at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics where India’s team had 13 Sikhs in their squad and were coached by Balkrishen Singh.  India won the Bronze medal. Kenya, led by Avtar Singh Sohal had nine Sikhs in her team which was coached by Hardial Singh Kular. Malaysia’s team included Harnahal Singh.

The 1972 Munich Olympic Games had 30 Sikhs playing hockey representing India, Kenya, Uganda and Malaysia. These Games saw the emergence of the Ugandan Hockey team led by Rajinder Singh Sandhu that included nine Sikhs making their one and only Olympic appearance. They drew 1 – 1 against the eventual champions, Germany, Kuldip Singh scoring their goal. Many in the crowd were of the impression that this was a match between India and Germany.

The pool match between India and Kenya on 2^nd September 1972 saw 15 Sikh players on the field at the same time – 10 for Kenya and 5 for India.  Both the teams were captained by Sikhs, Harmik Singh captaining India and Avtar Singh Sohal captaining Kenya. India won that match 3 – 2, all five goals being scored by Sikhs, Mukhbain Singh scoring two and Harmik Singh one for India and Davinder Singh Deegan scoring two for Kenya.

Sikhs scored 35 goals at the Munich Games.

Avtar Singh Sohal (Tari) of Kenya became the first player to Captain an Olympic team at three consecutive Olympic Games and play in four Olympics.

His achievements of playing in 167 internationals was recorded in Guinness Book of Records from 1979 - 1985.

Ajit Pal Singh captained India’s team, which included 8 Sikhs at the 1976 Olympic Games. The team was coached by Gurbax Singh. This was for the first time the Olympic tournament was played on an artificial pitch and for the first time an Indian team did not win a medal at Olympic Games since they first participated back in 1928. However these Games will be remembered for a long time as Ajit Singh set two records when scoring a single goal. He scored the first goal in the opening game in 1976 in the Montreal games against Argentina, which made him the scorer of the first Olympic goal on an artificial pitch. And as his shot went into the net after only 15 seconds it is also the fastest ever goal in Olympic history.

The 1980 Moscow Games will be remembered for political reasons and the boycott by the western countries. However India won the Gold, the team had 5 Sikh players and was coached by Balkrishen Singh. Surinder Singh Sodhi scored 15 goals in the tournament. The boycott resulted in Tanzania being called up at the last minute.

 Tanzania’s team included two Sikhs, Jasbir Virdee and Jaypal Singh.

Brajinder Daved became Kenya's third Sikh hockey captain at Olympic Games when he led Kenya's team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

The Great Britain’s team that won the Bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics included Kulbir Singh Bhaura.

Kulbir was also in the Great Britain team that won the Gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Pargat Singh Powar made his Olympic debut at Seoul and went on to captain India at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

He is the only player to captain India at two Olympic Games.

Ramandeep Singh Grewal captained India’s team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic  Games. 

Contribution of Sikhs to hockey never remained restricted to players. Many national teams in Asia, Australia, Africa, North America and even Europe had the benefit of getting trained by Sikh coaches. Prominent among them had been Balkrishan Singh, Baldev Singh, Ajitpal Singh, Gian Singh and Kartar Singh.

Principal Gursewak Singh, Gian Singh, Tarlok Singh Bhullar, Avtar Singh Sohal and Amarjeet Singh are some of the international and Olympic hockey umpires the Sikh community has produced.

Kenya’s Hardial Singh rose to be the Vice-President of the FIH, K P S Gill the President of the Indian Hockey Federation and Surinder Singh Dillon President of Hong Kong Hockey Association.