K. Arumugam (born 20 June 1958) is an Indian hockey journalist, author, columnist and hockey historian based in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. He has written over a dozen hockey books and runs an Indian hockey website, stick2hockey.com. He is also the founder of Hockey Citizens Group, a

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, which runs projects to promote and spread hockey in India through projects like One Thousand Hockey Legs (OTHL). OTHL aims to train 500 students from schools and underprivileged backgrounds every year.

Early life and background

Arumugam hails from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He did his schooling at the Government High School in Thirumarugal, near Nagapatanam,

. Then, he studied at

Presidency College, Chennai Presidency College is an art, commerce, and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. On 16 October 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School before being repurposed as a high school, and then a gra ...

and completed his graduation from IIT, Bombay (now Mumbai). A qualified geologist, he later moved to Delhi to work as a water scientist. But he quit his Central Government job to focus full time on his hockey work.

Projects

One of the main projects, One Thousand Hockey Legs (OTHL), was formally started in 2008. The project work in schools actually started at the turn of the century and aims to train 500 students below 15 years, from select schools, to make 1000 hockey legs. OTHL selects schools and enters into a partnership, provides coaches and equipment and the school has to provide a space and time to develop a hockey team. Starting with Delhi, the OTHL schools were started in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

and

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: Places in India * Puducherry (union territory), formerly known as Pondicherry ** Puducherry (city), capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district The Puducherry District, also know ...

. In Delhi, OTHL runs in 18 government schools. Overall it trains over 4000 students in 90 schools across five cities. The cost of about Rs.12 lakhs a year is spent by Arumugam on his own, with part of the support coming from donations from friends, and the proceeds from his hockey books.

Award

He was awarded

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar is a sports honour of the Republic of India. The name of the award in Hindi translates to National Sports Promotion Award. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The award recog ...

by President Pranab Mukherjee on 29 August 2016, the Indian Sports Day at

Rashtrapati Bhavan The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrapati Bhavana''; ; formerly Viceroy's House (1931–1947) and Government House (1947–1950)) is the official residence of the President of the Republic of India at the western end of Rajpath, Rai ...

. He was also awarded the

Hockey India Hockey India plans, directs and conducts all the activities for both men's and women's field hockey in India. It is recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India as the sole body responsible towards promoting the ...

President's Outstanding Achievement Award for the years 2015 and 2016.

Dhyan Chand chapter in text books

Arumugam's article titled ''The Wizard'' was taken from one of his books, ''The Great Indian Olympians'' and was included in the Class XI English text books by

NCERT National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) () is an autonomous organisation of Ministry of Education, the Government of India. Established in 1961, it is a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Re ...

(2002-2003).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:K., Arumugam 1958 births Living people People from Tamil Nadu Hockey writers Indian sportswriters 21st-century Indian geologists 20th-century Indian geologists