Gurbux Singh

Who is Gurbux Singh?

Gurbux Singh is a former field hockey player from India who was a member of the India national field hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Four years later he captured the bronze. In 1976 he was the head coach of the Indian squad that finished in seventh place at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Gurbux Singh was born at Peshawar but he grew up in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. After the partition, the family first moved over to Lucknow, then to Mhow and finally to Meerut from where Gurbux Singh did his graduation. He moved to Calcutta in 1957, a city which was to ultimately become his permanent home and where his sports career was to take shape. Gurbux initially tried his hand at badminton but then started playing hockey for his school in Lucknow.

Gurbux started hockey at the age of 16. He represented Agra University in 1954 – 55 and a year later won the Obaidullah Gold Cup Hockey Championship. Gurbux Singh first played in the East Bengal Club in 1957, and was influential in their first victory at the Beighton Cup that year. He later joined Calcutta Customs, for which he played from 1957 to 1965, and played for Mohun Bagan from 1968 to 1980. His career in domestic hockey is highly distinguished, and it is still considered difficult to match his club career record.