There are few sounds that can summon memory quite like the soft thud of the hockey stick meeting the ball. It echoes across time, from dusty school fields and army grounds to Olympic turfs shimmering under foreign skies.
As Indian hockey completes a hundred years of organised play, that echo feels louder and richer — carrying with it the laughter, sweat, heartbreak and pride of generations who have lived their lives through the game.
It was on November 7, 1925, in the princely city of Gwalior, that Indian hockey took roots. From that modest beginning rose legends who would go on to define Indian sport — a saga written in gold, eight times over. For those who lived through its golden age, the memories still glow bright.
Vasudev Bhaskaran and M.M. Somaya, heroes of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, India’s last golden chapter on the Olympic stage, still speak of that summer as if it were yesterday. “There was no astroturf in India then,” Bhaskaran recalls with a smile. “We practised on a cricket ground in Bangalore (now Bengaluru). The conditions weren’t ideal, but the spirit was unbreakable. We just wanted to play, to win, to make India proud.”
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That spirit carried them through to July 29, 1980, a date carved deep in the collective heart of Indian sport. In Moscow, India edged past Spain 4–3, reclaiming a crown they had worn so naturally for decades.
For the young Somaya, barely into his twenties, it was all new — the anthem, the nerves, the promise. “It was my first international tournament,” he reminisces softly. “I didn’t expect to play in the first XI. But once I stepped onto the field, the fear faded. Playing alongside Kaushik, Mervyn Fernandes, Surinder Sodhi, Shahid, and Zafar — it felt like magic in motion,” he said.
Those were the days when Indian hockey was still poetry on grass, when sticks danced more than they struck and goals were born out of grace as much as grit. Astroturf, introduced in 1976, would soon change the game’s rhythm forever. India would get its first turf only before the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi. But even as surfaces hardened, the heartbeat of the game remained tender, pulsing with artistry, pride and passion.
A century later, the story continues to unfold. The Tokyo Olympics bronze after a 52-year wait, the women’s stirring fourth-place finish and their FIH Nations Cup triumph — all whisper of a revival, of a legacy reawakening.
So, as the fraternity gathers to mark a hundred years, this celebration is not just about medals or milestones. It’s about the boys and girls who once ran barefoot with sticks made of dreams. It’s about the coaches who believed, the fans who never stopped hoping and the generations who found not just a sport in hockey, but a mirror of India’s own journey — resilient, rhythmic and reborn. For, Indian hockey has been more about belonging than winning alone.
By Joe Williams
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