Walter Luis de Sousa (16 December 1920 – 23 August 1989) was an Indian

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player.

Early life

Walter was born in Mbale in East Africa where his father worked for the British government. He returned to India as a young boy to pursue his education, which he did in Saint Josephs in Bangalore It was while he was a schoolboy in Bangalore that he started playing hockey. In the early 1940s he played for a club called the Bangalore Blues. He then moved to Bombay and joined

the Times Of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

and played both hockey and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

for them. He subsequently joined the Lusitanians - a Goan hockey team that in years to come fielded several Olympians including fellow Olympians

Leo Pinto Leo Pinto (11 April 1914 – 10 August 2010) was a field hockey goalkeeper from India, who won the gold medal with the Indian national team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. During the peak of his playing days, he was rated among the ...

, Maxi Vaz, Reggie Rodrigues and Amir Kumar.

International and club career

A member of the Indian Field Hockey Team that took the gold medal at the 1948 Olympic competition, Walter D’Souza's athletic career lasted around two decades. In 1943 he joined the Lusitanian Hockey Team and helped them take the Provincial Cup, the Lewis Cup, the Willie Fernandes Trophy and second place in the competition for the field hockey

Aga Khan Trophy The Aga Khan Trophy is the prize presented for Ireland's showjumping Nations Cup competition, held annually at the Dublin Horse Show. The first trophy was donated in 1926 by Aga Khan III, who was a frequent visitor to the show. Initially, a count ...

. That same year, he also joined the Young Goans Football club and won his first of three successive Nadkarni Cups with the team. He captained the Lusitanians in 1944 and 1945, winning the

and achieving second place for the Lewis Cup. In 1952, he began playing soccer for Bombay and in 1954 and 1955 he captained the city's field hockey team. As captain of the Indian Cultural League, he won the Indian Football Association's Shield, the first time a team outside of Calcutta had won the honor. He left the Lusitanians in 1956 to play for Burma Shell and continued to play for various teams on and off through 1968.

Later years and death

In 1976 he was the selector of the Indian National Hockey Team that won its first (and, as of 2006, only) Hockey World Cup. His health and eyesight began to fail and he died in 1989. His funeral was attended by many prominent field hockey players, including Lawrie Fernandes and

Representing India

1947 - East Africa Tour 1948 - London Olympics 1949 - Jashan Celebration in Afghanistan

Awards and honors

The Bakshi Bahaddar Jiva Kerkar State Award For Excellence In Sports By The Government Of Goa. The city of Mumbai honored him by founding the Walter de Sousa Garden near the Metro Cinema in 1993.Walter De Sousa at Sports Reference
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References

External links

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Profiles of eminent Goans, past and present
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Sousa, Walter 1920 births 1989 deaths Goan Catholics Field hockey players from Goa Indian Roman Catholics Olympic field hockey players of India Field hockey players at the 1948 Summer Olympics Indian male field hockey players Olympic gold medalists for India Olympic medalists in field hockey Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Expatriates in Uganda People from Eastern Region, Uganda Ugandan people of Indian descent Ugandan people of Goan descent