What number of of you’ve got heard of Jimmy George, the best volleyball participant India has ever produced? Except you’re from Kerala, one would reckon not many. His sister-in-law and legendary lengthy jumper Anju Bobby George is probably a extra in style determine in Indian sports activities.
Throughout Indian volleyball’s golden interval within the Nineteen Seventies and ‘80s, it was this 6’ 2” human spring from Peravoor, a small city in Kerala’s Kannur district, who led the cost in opposition to a few of the world’s greatest groups.
Ranked amongst the ten greatest attackers (spikers) on the earth throughout the mid Eighties, George took his abilities to the skilled leagues within the Center East and Italy. Even in the present day, Italy is residence to probably the greatest skilled volleyball leagues on the earth.
Kerala’s very personal
Born on 8 March 1955 in Peravoor, Jimmy George was the second amongst eight sons born to Joseph and Mary George. He grew up in a family the place ardour for volleyball was sturdy, since Joseph was a proficient university-level participant in his youth. In truth, 4 of the eight George brothers would go on to signify Kerala on the nationals.
However Jimmy George was greater than a pure athlete and excelled in lots of sports activities, together with swimming and chess. With a pointy thoughts for teachers, he received admission right into a Authorities Medical School in Thiruvananthapuram. However volleyball was at all times his old flame.
Barely 18, he was captain of the Kerala College crew, and would go on to cause them to 4 successive All India Inter-College Championship titles between 1973 and 1976. Throughout this era, he additionally broke by way of into the Indian arrange and was chosen for the 1974 Asian Video games in Tehran. India didn’t get previous the group levels, however George’s expertise at 19 was simple.
In 1976, he finally dropped out of medical faculty to focus on his burgeoning volleyball profession and located employment with the Kerala Police.
JIMMY GEORGE, was Indias best and one of many world’s greatest volleyball participant, on Nov thirtieth 1987, parted with us.Arjuna Award at 21,indoor stadiums and a road in Italy&India.God Hermes for Italians.Your reminiscence is a souvenir from which we’ll by no means half.@KirenRijiju pic.twitter.com/d3ScuMC7xY— Anju Bobby George (@anjubobbygeorg1) December 1, 2020
A ‘fan favorite’
It was an encounter with Russian coach Sergei Ivanovic Gavrilov that satisfied Jimmy George to grow to be an expert participant.
In 1976, Gavrilov held a one-week coaching camp in Thiruvananthapuram, which George attended. Impressed by his expertise, Gavrilove suggested him to show skilled and three years later, he was signed by the Abu Dhabi Sports activities Membership.
This made George the primary Indian volleyball participant to show skilled. Throughout his three-year stint within the Center East, he was adjudged the most effective participant within the area. In 1982, he was signed by the Italian membership Pallavolo Treviso, thus changing into the primary Indian volleyball participant to ply his commerce in a European league. The stint in Italy gave George the chance to play alongside and in opposition to a few of the greatest volleyball gamers from world wide. Within the almost six seasons he performed in Italy, he grew to become a fan favorite for the completely different golf equipment he represented.
Apart from the excessive degree of competitors, he additionally received the chance to experiment with completely different taking part in types, an expertise he sadly couldn’t impart to his teammates in India.
What made him world class?
Talking to The Indian Specific in 2009, his ex-teammate Ramana Rao, mentioned, “He had what is named absolutely the leap — greater than a metre above the bottom — which within the 70s and 80s was very uncommon in India…Volleyball is all about defying gravity, however Jimmy’s was probably the most trendy leap as a result of he managed a little bit air-rest the place he might cease in flight for a fraction of a second.”
Going additional, the spiker/attacker introduced the leap service to Indian volleyball, which is in the present day customary apply on the earth recreation, and a basic degree of professionalism.
“Apart from his leap, what was additionally a number of notches above every other Indian was his great psychological energy,” recalled nationwide coach GE Sridharan, who adopted George to Europe and performed setter [a position on court] on his Italian membership groups, to The Indian Specific in 2009.
“Jimmy was into meditation nicely earlier than it got here into Indian sport. When he got here to the court docket after his quiet thought, we might simply watch the saved vitality explode. The entire thoughts and physique got here as one when he jumped into the everyday physique arc,” he added.
When the Seoul Asian Video games got here round in 1986, George was among the many 10 greatest spikers/attackers on the earth. Within the match, he performed his coronary heart out.
On the morning of the bronze medal match in opposition to defending champions Japan, he reportedly advised his teammates about “20 occasions” that India would win. “He began attacking from the primary or second level, and stored asking for the ball. That day he blasted the ball like something and even scored off some unsuitable passes,” recalled Sridharan.
Apart from Sridharan, one other participant on that bronze medal profitable crew was PV Ramana, who’s badminton star PV Sindhu’s father.
‘Of common brotherhood’
George’s life and profession had been lower brief 35 years in the past on 30 November 1987 following a highway accident in Italy, the place he was taking part in within the prime division of their home league.
His dying at age 32 additionally marked the tip of Indian volleyball’s golden period. In his lifetime, he displayed exceptional expertise and represented Kerala at simply 16, gained the Arjuna Award at 22 and led India to a bronze medal end within the ‘86 Seoul Asian Video games.
His dying got here as a impolite shock to his household, associates and his followers in each Kerala and Italy. When his physique was introduced residence, hundreds got here out to pay their respects.
He was a hero to many in his residence state. In truth, his final recorded match on Indian soil, which was organised in Peravoor, noticed him crew up along with his brothers to play a match in opposition to a Kerala choose six aspect in honour of their father, Joseph. The George brothers gained that match.
His legacy lives on in Kerala even in the present day with the Jimmy George Sports activities Hub, previously often known as the Jimmy George Indoor Stadium. Through the years, a number of volleyball tournaments within the state have been named after him as nicely. However his legacy not solely lives on in Kerala, but in addition Italy.
In 1993, an indoor stadium was named after him within the city of Montichiari in Brescia province known as PalaGeorge.
Through the inauguration of the indoor stadium, the then-mayor of the city wrote a heartfelt letter that captured his legacy, “Jimmy George has left his excessive human values and morals not solely on the earth of sports activities but in addition in our complete neighborhood, particularly among the many youth. The dedication of this prestigious stadium to his title ought to convey a significant message of religion within the common brotherhood,” the letter learn.
“Subsequently, on this event, I wish to specific by way of the excessive officers to whom that is addressed, our feeling of appraisal and gratitude to the noble Indian individuals who have supplied us, within the determine of Jimmy George, a shining and strong instance of excessive common values. The circumstances could assist to construct up extra friendship between the 2 nations and could be a image of affection and peace for all of the folks,” it learn.
In truth, a road close to the Coletto Membership, one of many Italian groups he performed for, near the foremost metropolitan of Milan, was additionally rechristened after Jimmy George.
It’s really one of the crucial exceptional tales within the historical past of Indian sports activities.
(Edited by Divya Sethu)
Sources:
‘Remembering Jimmy, who soared increased than anybody earlier than or since’ by Shivani Naik; Printed on 26 July 2009 courtesy The Indian Specific
‘The story of Jimmy George, one in all India’s best volleyball gamers’ by Adnan Bhat; Printed on 8 January 2018 courtesy Crimson Bull
‘Jimmy George – Indian volleyball maverick who charmed his method from Kerala to Milan’ by Uthaya Nag; Printed on 22 November 2022 courtesy Olympic Video games
‘Jimmy George: The genius that towered over the remainder’ by Virendra Karunakar; Printed on 15 October 2013 courtesy Sportskeeda
Photos courtesy Fb/Twitter