Born on 3rd Oct.1941 in Lyallpur (now in Pakistan), Gurdial Singh Bhangu was the former head coach of National Institute of Sports, Patiala. He had his early schooling in KH School and graduated from N. Jain college in Ambala, Haryana. He also obtained Post-graduate degree in hockey from a reputed German institution. He was involved with coaching of men’s and women’s hockey team for about three decades which included assignment in three countries.
Hockey coach Gurdial Singh Bhangu
He joined National Institute of Sports, Patiala in 1965, and was posted in J&K initially. He worked under legendary Dhyan Chand in NIS (1968 to 1972), which he considers his best experience.
He was the coach of the Nigeria national hockey teams for four years between 1972 and 1977 in which spell Nigerian women’s team qualified for the 1976 World Cup and the men’s team clinched silver at the African Games (1975). He was chief coach of the Indian Junior women’s hockey team from 2006 to 2010. He also had intermittent coaching spells with Indian men’s team. It was in the late 90s and early 2000s that he hogged the limelight with a series of victories.
The peak of course is the Indian girls winning the first-ever and hitherto the lone Commonwealth Games gold (2002 at Manchester) under his tutelege. His women’s team also won Silver at the Delhi Asia Cup (1999). He is credited with polishing many women’s and men’s hockey players who shone on the national horizon.
After retirement from NIS, he took up chief coach mantle of Bangladesh team (2003 to 2006). During that spell, Bangladesh boys defeated India at the Junior Asia up (2205).
GS Bhangu now lives in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
He was fittingly the first hockey coach ever in India to be awarded Dronocharya (2001).