How Jalandhar lost its ‘nursery’

Rachna Khaira in Jalandhar

It turned out to be a landmark competition for the Indian hockey: before the 1960 Rome Games, India had never lost a hockey match at the Olympics. Pakistan impressed all with its ‘golden streak’ and ended India’s decade-old supremacy. It was then the former Punjab Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon decided to set up a sports college, one of its kinds in Asia. An area of 43 acres and 6 canals was earmarked in the prime location in Jalandhar. Som Nath, who represented India in athletics as well as volleyball at Olympics, was the founder principal of the State College of Sports.

Also, a state school of sports, popular as a ‘nursery’, also came up in the same premises to catch young talents. Along with sports, the college would also empower the players on the academic front. The college offered 140 sports seats.

Col (retd) Balbir Singh, the first Olympic medallist and Arjuna recipient from the college, recalls the young boys wearing the traditional ‘Chadra’ and holding a tin of homemade desi ghee were found knocking the college gate every day. “These young boys, mostly from rural areas, wanted to play to earn a glass of milk and an egg each day,” said Col Balbir Singh.

Soon after, Indian hockey team beat Pakistan to win Gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Though no one from the college represented the team, Col Balbir Singh ushered in the victory march of the college by getting Gold in the 1966 Bangkok Asian games.

The second in the line was Brigadier Harcharan Singh and Kulwant Powar who won a Bronze in 1972 Munich Olympics. Brigadier Singh was also a member of the Indian hockey squad who won Gold in the 1975 World Cup Hockey, Kaula Lumpur. Olympian Surjit, too, represented the country in the 1976 Olympics and won Gold in the 1975 World Cup, Montreal.

The college fell on bad days after Somnath’s death in 1977. The college started with arts and science streams, but later dropped science later. The name of the college was also changed to Government Arts and Sports College, Jalandhar.

“Sports trials for the state held in the college were taken off during Beant Singh’s tenure in 1992. Private colleges took over and the old institute could not survive the competition,” says Professor Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, a former principal and wife of MP Santokh Chaudhary from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency.

Another big jolt came when the state government attached its coaches to the sports department. They were no longer answerable to the college authorities.

Then a school for academic excellence came up on the institute’s premises in 2013 .The playgrounds for hockey, basketball, volleyball and badminton were demolished.