The Indian men's hockey team clinched their eighth - and final - gold medal in the sport at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
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Of India’s 9 gold medals in the history of the Olympics, eight of them come from the sport of hockey. The Indian men’s hockey team dominated the sport between 1920-1980. Along with 8 golds, they also won 1 silver and 2 bronze medals in the sport during that time. However, since 1980 onwards they haven’t won a single medal at the sport. The Indian team’s steady decline in the sport has been painful to watch for fans. Still, the team that won a medal in 1980 was memorable for a number of reasons.
With the Tokyo Olympics coming up, let us look back at India’s final hockey medal thus far.
India were extremely successful at the Olympics in hockey both pre and post Independence. They won three golds when under British rule but were even more successful from 1948 onwards.
They won a hat-trick of titles from 1948-56 before winning another gold in 1964. However, the following years saw them endure a steady decline in the sport.
In fact in 1976 they finished a lowly seventh, then their lowest-ever finish in the sport. Thusby the time 1980 rolled around, expectations from the team weren’t sky high.
To make matters worse, this was a very inexperienced team. Only Zafar Iqbal, Merwyn Fernandes, MM Somaya, Bir Bahadur Chhetri and skipper Vasudevan Baskaran had some degree of international experience.
In a bid to get the younger players motivated, Baskaran decided to try out a few new tricks. He had field marshal Sam Manekshaw speak to the players in a national camp before the Olympics.
“This bunch was lucky to have been spoken to by field marshal Sam Manekshaw,” Baskaran had said on the Sony Sports show Medal of Glory.
“He visited us twice and talked about the target at the Olympics. That’s how it began.”
Baskaran, clearly realising his plan was working, he brought in former Olympic hockey gold medallists and selectors Leslie Claudius and Muniswamy Rajagopal to speak on their experiences.
The talks motivated the young squad to give their all in the Games.
The format of the sport was quite different in the 1980 Moscow Games. The original plans called for a 12-team tournament with teams divided into two groups of six.
However, a total of 9 teams pulled out of the Games before it even began. Thus, only a total of 6 teams played in the field hockey tournament in the end. Those teams were India, Soviet Union, Poland, Spain, Tanzania and Cuba.
India began the tournament with a thumping 18-0 win over Tanzania. However, this was followed up by two draws against Poland and Spain.
The Poland game was a huge miss for India, who created a number of good chances but were wasteful in front of goal. However, the Spain draw was very different.
That game ended up having a galvanising effect on the Indian side. Spain were no slouches; they were the defending European champions and a favourite to win the gold.
“I think it was the turning point of our campaign. Spain was a fantastic team with one of the best coaches in the world and a great forwardline and holding them actually made me feel this team had it in them to win,” Baskaran said afterwards.
A 13-0 win against Cuba sent them through to the semis where they faced the mighty Soviets. And along with them, a partisan and intimidating home crowd.
However, the Indians played with a spirit and were not cowed down by the raucous home support. Indeed, they ended up winning 4-2 to book their spot in the final against Spain.
They would go on to beat the Spaniards in a classic final encounter. India scored twice to take a 2-0 lead before adding a third in the second half. However, Spain scored twice in quick succession.
India got a fourth thanks to a tactical change that saw Mohammad Shahid deployed at centre-forward. He scored and India hung on to win the game, surviving a late onslaught from Spain.
The medal win was widely celebrated. However, little did anyone associated with Indian hockey know at the time that this would be India’s last medal in hockey thus far.
India have endured a more than 30-year wait to see their hockey team ascend to the top of the podium again. Whether they can do so this time around remains to be seen.
However, their history in the sport means they remain giants even with a lack of recent glory.
