The year was 1928
and India, then under British rule, had waited 28 years since the colonized nation’s
first Olympic gold. Hockey — later to become India’s national sport — was an on
again off again fixture at the world’s biggest sporting event. But 1928 was
hockey’s year, and India’s.

Hockey had been written
off the Olympics in the Paris Games of 1924 because the sport lacked adequate
infrastructure. The removal drew an immediate response from enthusiasts of the
sport culminating in the creation of the International Hockey Federation the
same year.

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Four years later, the
newly-formed Indian Hockey Federation insisted that the sport find its way back
into the Olympics. It was this insistence on the Indian Hockey Federation’s
part that would usher in India’s golden age at the Olympics and give birth to
India’s first sporting superstar — Dhyan Chand.

The Indian hockey team’s
debut at the Olympics was marred with controversy over captaincy and
interpersonal conflict. But on May 17, when the Indian hockey team went
head-to-head with Austria, history was made. India won the match 6–0 with Dhyan
Chand scoring three goals.

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The Indian hockey
team went on to win the Olympic gold that year.

And thus began
India’s overwhelming dominance in the world of field hockey. The 1932 Olympics
saw India make records that would stand the test of time. India’s 24–1 score
against the US hockey team remains the highest score in international hockey to
date.

Of the 35 goals
scored by India in the tournament, 25 were scored by the two brothers — Roop
Singh and Dhyan Chand and the Indian hockey team won its second Olympic gold.

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The controversial
1936 Berlin Olympics saw the Indian hockey team win its hattrick gold. Legend
has it that Adolf Hitler was so impressed with Dhyan Chand that he asked the
ace sportsman to join the German Army. Fortunately, Dhyan Chand wasn’t interested.

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The three consecutive
Olympic golds in field hockey went on to make the Indian hockey team virtually
invincible. Indian hockey’s uncontested Olympic supremacy would go on till 1964.

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Even as the 1968
Mexico Olympics saw the end of India’s dominance in the world of hockey, the
country’s hockey fraternity still had an institution in Dhyan Chand long after
his playing days were over. He was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India’s
third-highest civilian honour, in 1956. Dhyan Chand’s birthday, August 29, is
celebrated in India as National Sports Day.