A stadium that was blessed, while it was being built, by three Olympic medallists

Exciting history of Chennai's Rajarathinam Stadium, blessed by Olympic medallists, showcases city's sporting legacy.

The Olympics are just around the corner. The games will take place in Paris but the excitement here is palpable. I still nurture hopes that India will one day host the games, with Chennai too playing a role in them. While I await that, I can at least draw satisfaction in that the city has had its share of Olympic participants and medallists.

Today, however, I look at a stadium in the city that was blessed while it was being constructed, by no less than three Olympic medallists — and all three were Americans. I stumbled upon this nugget while researching the history of the Tamil Nadu police for the book Kaaval, which I wrote at their behest. Until the 1950s, the Vellore Fort was an important centre for police training, and it was there that the annual sports meet of the Madras Police was held.

At the same time, with Madras being the Presidency, Province and then State capital, it was here that there was a significant police presence and there was a pressing need for sporting facilities for them. The Pudupet Maidan as it was called, located off Commander-in-Chief Road, became the informal venue from 1889 for this, chiefly owing to its proximity to the Pudupet Reserve Police Lines. This formalised into the Madras City Police Sports Club when in 1919 Lady Willingdon, wife of the then Governor, laid the foundation for it. The facility was declared open in 1925. In 1954, the then Inspector-General of Police, V.R. Rajarathinam, decided to move the annual police sports meet to Madras. The Pudupet Maidan was to be the venue. The challenge lay in creating a suitable track for the athletic events.

The police managed this by themselves, filling in a huge depression measuring 100 by 50 yards at the corner of the maidan. This cinder track was inaugurated by the Rev. Bob Richards, World Olympic Pole-Vaulting Champion. He cut a tape and then ran on the track. At the end of his run, he complimented the police on preparing “one of the fastest tracks in India”. On the same day, Bob Richards, who, owing to his spiritual calling and choice of sport, was known as the parson who was trying to jump to heaven on his own efforts, gave a motivational talk to the police.

The 1954 Police Sports Meet was dogged by bad weather, but it was decided to move the sports meets permanently to Madras. This led to the creation of a permanent police stadium in the city. Rajarathinam was the prime mover and by 1957 the work was completed. While this was in progress, two more Olympians, namely Jesse Owens and Bob Mathias, came to the city. They too were invited to run on the track, and they did so, appreciating what was on offer. Jesse (a corruption of JC for James Cleveland) Owens was the star of the Berlin Olympics, winning four gold medals there in 1936 and facing Adolf Hitler’s ire because of his skin colour. Bob Mathias was a decathlete who won medals in the 1948 (London) and 1952 (Tokyo) Olympics.

It remained the Police Stadium until the 1970s, when largely at the prodding of F.V. Arul, then Inspector-General of Police, it came to be named the Rajarathinam Stadium.

(V. Sriram is a writer and historian.)