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Campus champions
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Once inter-collegiate competitions brought to the fore champions in many sporting disciplines. But the scenario is different today, says S. THYAGARAJAN
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COLLEGIATE COMPETITIONS constitute the essence of sporting strength of a State. Time was when students figured in inter-collegiate tournaments six days a week in tennis, football, hockey, basketball, volleyball and cricket. The Madras Collegiate Athletics Association comprising physical directors of various affiliated colleges ensured the office-bearers organised the inter-collegiate competitions in a professional way. The college grounds were a beehive of activity.
The State associations happily offered excellent support to the MCAA because they viewed the competitions as the best training ground for the youth and an opportunity for the talent scouts of city league clubs to identify the available potential. The State associations lent technical support, such as allotting qualified umpires and referees.
For competitors too, the inter-collegiate championships, be it the Pennyquick Trophy for cricket (launched in 1896) or the Lawley Cup for football and hockey (established in 1906) to name a couple of prizes, were the gateways to advertise their talent. Several collegians made it to the State and University teams. What made the collegiate matches important was the detailed media coverage.
When recalling those halcyon days of collegiate sports, it is difficult to flinch from acknowledging the pioneering roles played by P. R. Subramaniam of Presidency College, C. A. Abraham of Christian College, Tambaram, and Narayanan of Loyola College. Actually, it was Subbu, as P. R. Subramaniam was affectionately called, who sowed the seeds for the Madras Collegiate Athletics Association, while conducting competitions as physical director (PD) of Presidency College.
A number of physical education teachers played constructive roles in enhancing the profile of collegiate sports. Mention must be of made Narasimhachar of Law College, T. V. Venkatraman of Vivekananda and J. S. Rao of Pachaiyappa's. A few PDs were competent coaches. Doraisamy of Loyola, in particular, himself a star player, used to spend hours shaping the basketball team. T. V. Srinivasan of Jain College was another who showed keen interest in basketball, not only acting as coach but as qualified referee as well, officiating in several state level tournaments. Christy David of Christian College was an acknowledged soccer coach while his mentor, C. A. Abraham, lent his expertise to athletes.
Prominent coverage in the media prompted several heads of leading institutions to take more than an ordinary interest in the welfare of the players. Some even enjoyed a special status within the campus. There were occasions when victorious teams given a hero's welcome and colleges declaring a holiday even to celebrate a triumph or two. Principals, like Rev. Fr. T. N. Sequeira of Loyola, made it a point every evening to go round the college grounds exchanging greetings with the students, and even take time off to be physically present to witness matches.
The interest generated by the inter-collegiate league and University knock-out tournaments — the Duncan Trophy for cricket being the most popular — made several institutions come forward to organise inter-collegiate competitions.
It is heartening that only the Bertram Tournaments hosted by the Loyola College since the Thirties, have survived the sands of time. The Physical Education teachers, from Narayanan to Doraiswamy down to Satyaseelan, who is currently the Director of Physical Education for Madras University, supported and sustained well by the successive principals and rectors, have succeeded in keeping the competitions alive till today.
It is not for nothing that whenever the name of the prestigious Stanley Cup for tennis is mentioned, people begin talking about the school-boy winner, Ramanathan Krishnan, the Amritraj brothers (Anand, Vijay and Ashok) and Ramesh Krishnan, not to leave out several others such as Rabi Venkatesan and V. K. Parthasarathy.
Pachaiyappa's, under J. S. Rao, launched the popular Tarapore-Loganathan Cup for cricket and Principal Krishnamurthi Cup for hockey, while Jain College conducted a series of competitions, the highlight of which was the Mohanmulji Chordia Gold Cup cricket tournament. Madras Medical, Stanley Medical and Madras Veterinary clleges all were part of the city circuit of tournaments.
It will be a herculean task to catalogue the prominent players who were consistently figured in newspaper headlines. From Balu Alaganan to Gopinath (the Christian College stars) to A. G. Kripal Singh, P. K. Belliappa, Milkha Singh and Satwender Singh of Loyola, down to Vivekananda's U. Prabhakar Rao, V. V. Kumar, U. Prabhakar Rao, P. K. Krishnamurthy, S. V. S. Mani and S. Venkatraghavan, who later led Madras Engineering, which also projected Krishnamachari Srikkanth, there have been several who graduated into the higher realms of sport. Pachaiyappa's had cricketers of prominence in M. K. Murugesh, K. S. S. Mani and V. Rajaram. The icon for Christian for long was the Olympic sprinter, Eric Prabhakar, whose contemporary in Loyola was the triple jumper, Henry Rebello, both of whom figured in the London Olympics in 1948.
Law College's stature in basketball was reflected in the consistency of performances of Suryanarayan and Ganesan, while in volleyball it was K.Murugan, the present Secretary, TNOA, cornered a lot of attention. Vasudeva Rao, T.M.Murari and K.Janardhana Rao (he is now the Consul-General now in Melbourne) symbolised the strength of Madras Medical while G.Swaminathan was flag bearer for Stanley Medical. S.V.Ramaswamy was the backbone of Guindy Engineering in basketball.
Not many of this generation are aware that Jawad Hussain, father of the former England captain, Nasir Hussain, turned up for Loyola and the Government Arts Colleges as an all rounder and also as an inside forward in hockey, while Zaman, whose daughter, Peggy Zaman, the former national women's champion, represented the Arts and Stanley Medical in three disciplines, cricket, tennis and hockey.
Several captains of industry in the State today were very much part of the inter-collegiate circuit. N. Sankar and N. Srinivasan of India Cements were a formidable doubles combination as were the twin brothers, S. Ramachandran and S. Lakshman of Enfield India. M. A. Alagappan of the TI Group, Viji Srinivasan of TVS and the former Finance Minister, P.Chidamabaram, were among the collegians who cornered attention in the media then.
It is not difficult to comprehend why the interest in inter-collegiate competitions has diminished alarmingly in recent decades. Indifference by the institutions and neglect of infrastructure are cited as prime factors. One wonders whether the collegiate competitions will ever regain their value and vibrancy at all.
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