Dhyan Chand
His quicksilver agility on the field as a centre-forward and captain of the Indian hockey team became legendary. It earned him the name 'hockey wizard'. Such was Dhyan Chand's reputation, that people thought he used a special hockey stick. Olympic officials in Holland took it apart to see if there was a magnet inside. In Japan, they decided he used some sort of super glue. German dictator Adolf Hitler offered to buy Dhyan Chand's hockey stick. A Vienna sports club has a statue of Dhyan Chand depicting him with four arms holding four hockey sticks!Dhyan Chand was a member of the Indian hockey team which won a gold medal in its first appearance in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. He played a stellar role in its win in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. In the 1936 Berlin Games, Dhyan Chand was the captain and led India to victory over Germany in the final. Out of the 338 goals scored by the Indians in 37 matches in 1932, Dhyan Chand contributed an astounding 133! In 1947, at the age of 42, and semi-retired, he accompanied a young Indian team to East Africa and scored 61 goals in 22 games!A team-member, Olympic gold medallist Keshav Dutt says,"Dhyan Chand knew where each player was without having to look. It was almost psychic." Another team-mate Gurbux Singh recounts how even in 1959, when he was way past his best, no Indian player could win the ball in a bully-off with Dhyan Chand.India issued a stamp in his honour in 1980.
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