At 93, the battles of Tokyo still live on in Dharam Singh Mann's memory

Action from the 1964 Olympics final between India and Pakistan

JALANDHAR: Dharam Singh Mann may have put away his hockey stick decades ago, but his passion for the game remains undiminished. At 93, one of Punjab's oldest surviving links to Indian hockey's golden era, Mann played in the gold-medal-winning team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the bronze-winning side at the 1968 Mexico Games.

He vividly remembers the bruises, battles and bonds that shaped his journey.As Jalandhar, the heartland of Indian hockey, hosted the initial rounds of the Asian Champions Trophy, Mann served as a poignant reminder of a glorious legacy the sport must cherish and pass on to future generations.A retired Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) with Punjab Police, Mann began his journey on the village grounds, where his first hockey stick was his father's.

"I used to take his stick and wait for my turn outside the village ground. The day I got my first chance, there was no looking back," he told TOI.Mann's international journey gathered momentum with the 1963 Lyon International Hockey Tournament in France, a key preparatory event ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. He also suffered a broken jaw after being struck by a rival's stick. He remembers the care he received from hockey legend Udham Singh, who brought him homemade desi ghee-bone broth and fed him for days as he recovered.

Despite his age, memories of the 1964 Olympic final against Pakistan refuse to fade. When the old rivals targeted India's centre-forward Harbinder Singh, Mann and teammates Prithipal Singh and Gurbax Singh decided not to let the intimidation go unanswered. "We told him the game wasn't over. We would challenge them on the field like it's war," he recalled with a smile. India eventually prevailed, winning Olympic gold.

During a visit to a primary school in Japan, Mann was struck by children who, instead of talking about what they wanted to become, asked what they could do for their country. He believes this sense of collective responsibility was central to Japan's sporting success and carried that lesson into hockey and the Punjab Police.