Balbir Singh Sr's lost memorabilia: Family's search continues

In the last 10 years, his family members left no stones unturned to regain his memorabilia, which he had donated way back in 1985 to the Sports Authority of India. One of India's greatest hockey players who won three Olympic gold medals in a stellar career, Singh died in May 2020 after battling multiple health issues. His missing memorabilia included an Olympic blazer, medals and rare pictures.

It was donated to the SAI for a proposed museum which never saw the light of day. "When coaxed, he would compare the pain of their loss to the passing of a close family member," Singh's maternal grandson Kabir told PTI here on Sunday recalling how the family has been moving from pillar to post for the last 10 years. The family says they came to know that the items were missing when the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Museum wanted the Melbourne Games blazer to be a part of the official 2012 London Olympics exhibition.

There he was honoured as one of 16 Olympic icons across all disciplines in 116 years of the modern Olympics. "That is when we contacted SAI to get that blazer as Nanaji (Balbir Sr.) had nothing with him in London apart from Olympic medals. But SAI officials said that they didn't know about the whereabouts of the treasure," Kabir said.

These articles were part of our national sporting heritage, he added. A group of lawyers from the Punjab and Haryana High Court filed many RTIs in the SAI office in New Delhi and the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, which revealed that the articles were indeed received by these authorities from Singh. "We also have the original newspaper clipping with picture of the handover in 1985.