Defender Prithipal Singh was born at Nanka Sahib (now in Pakistan) on January 28, 1932 and moved to Indian Punjab after partition. He left his mark as a bright student, player and sports administrator. He studied at Agriculture College Ludhiana whose hockey team he represented and later captained. The defender had a Masters in Agriculture. He first came into limelight when played his maiden National Championship (1957), representing Punjab.

Though he was among the trainees after next Nationals (1958), the right-fullback made his international debut early in 1959 (East Africa tour) after another grand show at the Hyderabad Nationals (1959). After touring Europe for the Munich Festival, the penalty corner expert joined the Olympian’s pantheon (Rome, Silver) next year. Since then he donned nation's colours for eight years (except a briefly in 1963) till he retired after 1968 Olympics which he jointly-captained.

He helped India regain the Olympic gold in the 1964 Olympics and 1966 Asian Games. Before these two land mark victories, he won the Silver at the Asian Games and Gold at the Ahmadabad International, both in 1962. He added domestic glory in the early 60s having won siler and gold respectively in the 1961 and 1963 Nationals. He was made leader of the Indian team in 1967 (Madrid Hockey Festival and East Germany Test in India), both India won handsomely. He first played for Punjab Police (1956-1963), then switched to Indian Railways (1963-1967), finally settled as an Executive post in his alma matter which has then became Punjab Agriculture University.

Tragedy stuck his life when the legend was assassinated in the college campus on May 20, 1983.

Prithi Pal Singh was the first hockey player to win Arjuna award (1961) in hockey, which was followed by even greater national recognition, Padamshree (1967).