Hockey has found its origin in India during the time of British ruling. It is also known as one among the oldest games for last 1200 years. This game has seen a lot of developments by passing through Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Ethiopians. Some people were used to play this game only for fun while for others it was a good practice of becoming a warrior. The history of hockey team in India is worth mentioning.
The term ‘hockey’ has its origin from France. There is a word in French, hocquet which means shepherds crook. All the modern rules for playing hockey were introduced by London Hockey Association in 1886. In India, hockey was introduced by the British Army. The Beighton Cup was the first major hockey tournament in India. In 1895 it was organized in Kolkata. We can still find the photos of hockey players of that time.
In the year 1896, once again a tournament was organized for hockey team in India. This tournament
was named as Aga Khan Cup. After that hockey came into full gear making remarkable presence in international events like Afro-Asian Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Hockey Champions Challenge, World Cup, Olympic Games etc.
A recent achievement was to organize in India in Delhi in the year 2010. The time period between 1928 and 1956 is considered to be the Golden Period of Indian Hockey. We can see its golden history captured in the photos of hockey players. It was in the year 1928 when India won its first gold medal in Olympics.
Without a second thought, India was a champion of hockey till the year 1956. It is an amazing fact that India has won continuous six gold medals in Olympics which is a record still unbroken. Also, Indian hockey has a record of winning consecutive 24 matches during the years between 1924 and 1956.
This record is also unbroken till now. Besides that some other remarkable achievements by Indian hockey team are winning a gold medal in World Cup, 2 gold medals in Asian Games and 2 more gold medals in Asia Cup.
Some dominating names in Indian Hockey history are Balbir Singh, Roop Singh and Major Dhyanchand. Dhyanchand is the most talked about personality in Indian Hockey. In 1956 he was awarded with Padma Bhushan, for being a legendary player of Indian Hockey who managed to bag three gold medals in Olympics.
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