The death of hockey legend Lawrence Joseph Van Huizen at 89 recently was a huge blow to our nation.
He was no stranger to local sports after having represented the nation in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games in Tokyo and Jakarta respectively, as well as the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Like many players before him, the former Standard Chartered Bank clerk turned to coaching after winning tournaments and representing his home state Negri Sembilan from 1950 to 1965.
One of his first major stints took place during the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur when he became assistant coach to Ho Koh Chye. Together, the duo took the hockey team to a fourth place finish in the two-week tournament that began on March 2.
India emerged as world champion after outwitting its opponents with a defend-and-attack strategy. Eager for his players to gain exposure to that style of play, Van Huizen, in one of his first roles as a full-fledged coach, led the Negri Sembilan team on its first ever official visit to the subcontinent.
During the three-week tour from Nov 14, 1975, the Yang di-Pertuan Besar’s XI, fresh from its Razak Cup triumph, played friendly matches against established teams in Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Bombay before taking part in the Nehru Memorial Hockey Tournament in New Delhi.
Van Huizen was no stranger to India. During his first visit, he was part of the Malayan team that participated in the 1960 World Invitation Tournament at Ahmedabad and four years later, in 1964, he captained the national team on its pre-Olympic tour there.
Hockey ran deep in the blood of Van Huizen, who was of Dutch and Portuguese ancestry. His son, Stephen Van Huizen, is an ex-international and the national assistant coach with the men’s hockey team, while Stephen’s son, Joel, represented Malaysia at the 14th Hockey World Cup in Bhubabeswar, India, last year.
FIRST FORMAL MATCH
Despite his death, Van Huizen continues to motivate Malaysians with his achievements the same way he was inspired by pioneers of the game that took root in Malaya when the first formal match between two teams comprising British expatriates, Harris’ XI and Whitley’s XI, was played at the Selangor Club Padang in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 30, 1898.
In the early 20th century, British-dominated hockey clubs began sprouting up in Seremban, Ipoh, Penang and Melaka. By 1904, club teams from Selangor and Singapore began pitting their skills against each other.
A much larger competition in 1925, which saw a representation of Federated Malay States hockey clubs taking on their peers from the Straits Settlements, became cause for the formation of the first state-level hockey association in Penang.
The new style of organisation caught on quickly and soon became a trend among other states. By October 1927, two other associations in Negri Sembilan and Perak were established.
In 1936, Perak went a step further in terms of management efficiency when provisions were made to its Hockey Association Constitution for the formation of six similarly-structured organisations at the district level.
The decentralising move was a step in the right direction and the number of people taking up hockey began to increase. The sport was up and running in Malaya, and was played by people from all walks of life at club and district levels by the late 1930s.
Among the more active hockey related organisations then were the Tamilians’ Physical Cultural Association and the Selangor Chinese Recreation Club in Kuala Lumpur.
MALAY HOCKEY FESTIVAL
The game proved to be popular among Malays. An annual Malay Hockey Festival, started in 1936, saw the participation of teams from Malay states, especially Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan. Activities, however, came to a halt during the Japanese occupation.
In 1955, a decision was made to establish the Malay Hockey Association and revive the Malay Hockey Festival. A year later, the first post-war festival was held with Negri Sembilan emerging champion.
The competition, which began with much promise and fanfare, began showing signs of lethargy when lack of interest among participating teams, as well as supporters, led to cancellations in 1961 and 1962. It resumed for three more years before stalling again in 1966.
When Selangor and Singapore were declared joint champions the year after, the celebrations that followed belied the fact that the end was nigh. Times were changing and players were setting their sights on being part of the national team and harboured hopes of representing the country in the Olympics and Asian Games.
The Malay Hockey Festival was held for the 10th and final time in Ipoh, Perak. The event saw the participation of 10 teams, including Singapore and the armed forces. Perlis, Negri Sembilan and Johor, however, did not send representatives.
The Raja DiHilir Perak officiated the opening on April 14, 1971, while culture, youth and sports minister Datuk Hamzah Abu Samah gave away prizes to the winning armed forces team four days later.
HOCKEY SIBLINGS
Despite its short-lived tenure, the Malay Hockey Festival proved to be a useful training ground for budding players and became a launching pad to further their careers. Among those who made their presence felt was a group of five male siblings from Negri Sembilan who began making their name in the years leading up to World War 2.
Among the brothers, Sheikh Ali was the most famous as he was part of the 18-man national team that made it to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and was teammates with Van Huizen at the Tokyo Asian Games.
Born in 1925, Sheikh Ali’s love affair with the sport happened by chance in 1939 when he returned from school one day to find himself alone at home. Bored, he got hold of his elder brother’s hockey stick and began dribbling the ball around the house in Rahang, a Seremban suburb.
The 14-year-old, who was studying at King George V School in Seremban, was so engrossed in his newfound passion that he did not realise that his brothers had returned home and were observing his natural flair with admiration.
Sheikh Ali took to hockey like a duck to water and improved by leaps and bounds under his brothers’ guidance. His inclusion in the school hockey team and participation in competitions took his game up several notches.
In 1946, he was approached by members of the Negri Sembilan Hockey Association to fill the right-winger position in the state team. A year later, he found a place in the South team, which consisted of the best hockey players from Negri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor and Singapore.
At the time, the annual hockey season in Malaya ended with a customary match between the South team and its Northern counterparts from Kedah, Penang, Perak, Pahang and Selangor.
EARLY WEAKNESSES
Sheikh Ali had his first taste of international competitions when he was part of the Malayan team that took on India at the Selangor Club Padang in 1954. Due to its lack of exposure to international meets, the Malayan side was out-played in almost every department and suffered a 2-14 drubbing at the hands of the Indians, who had five Olympic titles to their name.
The scoreline, however, did not reflect the true grit and dedication displayed by the brave Malayan players although it was a known fact that they were minnows, compared with their stronger and more experienced opponents.
Those positive attributes impressed the Indian team coach, Jian Singh, so much that he took it upon himself to give the Malayan team pointers on improving its tactics.
In the same year, the Malaysian Hockey Federation (later Malayan Hockey Confederation) was established to act as the national governing body. Herman Marie De Souza became president and Kandiah Aryaduray, secretary. Prior to Merdeka in 1957, two consecutive high commissioners of the Federation of Malaya, Sir Gerald Templer and Sir Donald MacGillivray, were patrons.
LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT
Sheikh Ali hung up his boots in 1967 after helping his home state secure Razak Cup success. Apart from being remembered as one of the few outstanding players who could execute a complicated back-stick strike without triggering a default, he was renowned for displaying moves on the field that were often compared to those of Pakistani hockey legend, Shanaz Sheikh.
Although the playing careers of Van Huizen and Sheikh Ali were similar in terms of local and international representations, the same could not be said about their career paths after retirement.
Sheikh Ali opted to be a referee and held the post of secretary to the Negri Sembilan Board of Hockey Referees for many years, while Van Huizen chose coaching to benefit the younger generation of players with his vast experience.
The greatest moment of his coaching career happened when five of the St. Paul’s Institution players he was training were chosen to represent Malaysia in the 1979 Junior World Cup in Paris. The quintet were Stephen, Collin Sta Maria, Derek Fields, Kevin Nunis and William Lazaroo.
By the early 1980s, interest in Malaysian hockey was starting to wane after the teams failed to maintain the momentum following a string of successes in the 1970s.
Measures that were initiated to put things back on track and help Malaysia regain its place among the hockey elite began to show results in the following three decades.
NEW HOCKEY GOLDEN AGE
Malaysian men’s hockey turned the corner by winning the silver medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. A year later, the junior squad achieved a first by winning the inaugural Sultan of Johor Under-21 Six Nation Invitational Cup in Johor Baru.
This success was made even more significant as it was the first time in history that a Malaysian hockey team had won an international tournament either at home or away.
The win proved to be the perfect boost for the juniors when they once again repeated their record-breaking feat by winning their first-ever Junior Asia Cup when the competition was held in Melaka in 2012.
The win meant that the Malaysian team had won qualification for the Junior World Cup Finals in India in 2013 in style. The boys not only defeated Pakistan 2-1 in the final, but also knocked out defending champions India 2-0 in the semi-finals.
Encouraged by the successes that had brought prestige to Malaysian hockey, the then Malaysian Hockey Confederation president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (now sultan of Pahang and Yang di-Pertuan Agong) initiated a groundbreaking move to restructure the sports.
His proposal to bring the men’s and women’s hockey teams under a governing body was agreed by all parties.
Since then, Malaysian hockey has benefited from the reorganisation as it brought about better management efficiency and gave the players opportunities to participate in local and international competitions.
With those attributes in place, it is hoped that everyone involved will help propel Malaysian hockey to greater heights.