Balbir
Singh (Services) represented India at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic
Games.
Balbir
played for India in the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games where India
won the Gold Meda.
He
toured Afghanistan with Indian Universities Hockey Team in 1962.
Two years later, he played for the Punjab State in the 1964
National Hockey Championship in Delhi.
As
a tribute to the glorious success of the Indian Hockey Team
in the 5th Asian Games at Bangkok, the Indian Posts and Telegraphs
Department released a special commemorative stamp on 31st December
1966.
Balbir Singh (Services) is one of four players in the picture
on the stamp (extreme left).
Balbir
joined the Army in 1965 and represented the services in the
National Hockey Championship from 1965 to 1974.
He
led the services team that won the Bombay Gold Cup in 1971.
As
a young military cadet, Balbir was in the team that toured Europe
and Japan in 1966, Europe and Kenya in 1967, Uganda and Europe
in 1968.
He
played Test Matches against all visiting teams from 1965 to
1972.
Balbir
was awarded the Indian National Award ‘Arjuna Puraskar’
in 1968.
He
was awarded Vishist Seva Medal.
He
received Chief of Army Staff Commendation Card.
In
1999 he received a Lifetime Achievement award.
Problems
with the knee affected his playing career but not his love for
the game. He took to coaching and coached the ASC hockey team
from 1970 to 1980 and Central Zone team in 1981.
He
was the official coach of the Indian team that played the 1982
Champion Trophy in Amsterdam where India won the Bronze Medal.
He
was the coach at the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi where India won
the Silver Medal.
He
was the coach at the 1982 Esanda World Hockey Championship in
Melbourne where India won the Silver Medal.
Balbir
was the Women’s National Coach from 1995 to 1998.
Balbirs
Services & Senior Feb 2006
He
was the National Selector and Government nominee on the selection
panel of the Indian Hockey Federation (senior) from March 1987
to July 1987.
He
was also the manager of the Indian hockey team which participated
in the Indo-Pan American Hockey Championship held in Chandigarh
in 1995.
Balbir
rose to the rank of Colonel in the Indian Army. He was the third
hockey player from Sansarpur, the nursery of Indian Hockey,
to receive the Arjuna Award after Udham Singh and Jagjit Singh.
After
his retirement in his native village, Sansarpur (which is known
as the nursery of Indian Hockey) Balbir’s love for hockey
remains undiminished.
He
is the President of Sansarpur Hockey Association and is involved
in a plan to train and nurture hockey talent where approximately
150 young boys are being trained every day.
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