Victor John "V. J." Peter (19 June 1937 – 30 June 1998) was an Indian professional field hockey player. A three-time Olympian who played as a halfback, he was a part of the Indian national team that won the silver, gold and bronze medals respectively in the 1960, the 1964 and the 1968 Olympic Games.[1] Peter's brother Victor Philips was a member of the 1975 World Cup winning team.[2]
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Victor John Peter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
19 June 1937 Madras (now Chennai), Madras Presidency (now in Tamil Nadu), British India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died |
30 June 1998 (aged 61) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Halfback | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Madras Engineer Group | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Caps | Goals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Born in Madras (now Chennai), Peter represented his employer Madras Engineer Group, and Services at the club level.[1] He was renowned for his "dribbling skills, ball control and playmaking" and was called by former teammates Harbinder Singh and Inam-ur Rahman as "one of the best inside-rights India ever produced". Another former teammate Gurbux Singh credited him as having been the "architect of India's triumph over Pakistan in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics final." Peter was also instrumental in India's gold medal winning campaign at the 1966 Asian Games.[3] Following his death in June 1998, another former teammate Charles Cornelius recalled, "Peter was pure magic, and I will never forget the combination of Mohinder Lal, Joginder and Peter." M. P. Ganesh felt he was a "very artistic player and his passing was accurate and well-timed."[4]
References
edit- ^ a b Swamy, V. Narayan (4 August 2011). "Peter's family struggles to make ends meet". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
- ^ "1964 Tokyo Olympics". Bharatiya Hockey. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
- ^ "Peter remembered". The Indian Express. 2 July 1998. Archived from the original on 19 June 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
- ^ "Hockey Olympian VJ Peter no more". The Indian Express. 2 July 1998. Archived from the original on 23 May 2001. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
External links
edit- John Peter at Olympedia
- John Peter at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
