He should have an exclamation mark grafted onto his name for his lifelong devotion to hockey and for being someone in Malaysian sports we can rally around and be inspired by.

The story of the Olympian and double international is a compelling portrait of a small town teenage sensation who became a teacher, then hockey supremo.

It is an honest dramatisation of the challenges and glory of many sports people of the past.

Yogeswaran, known as Yoges, shared memories of his sporting days with FMT to mark his 82nd birthday today, reflecting on a way of sportslife gone by, a time when things were far less complicated than they are now.

He made his mark on every level of hockey as a left winger with stunning speed, and coach and manager of the national men’s and women’s teams.

Yoges launched the careers of numerous players, including the national juniors who finished fourth at the 1982 Junior World Cup hockey, and later formed the spine of the Malaysian team.

He managed teams from 1998 to 2002 in majors such as the World Cup, Olympics, Commonwealth Games and regional games.

Many consider him as one of the nicest and principled people in Malaysian sports, a leader who fostered unity and treated his charges like a family.

Or, as Yoges who was at four Olympics, twice each as a player and official, put it, “the lad from Tapah who could have done anything but chose hockey”.

Yoges played football with Ng Boon Bee – who went on to become a national star in the game and badminton – and represented Perak and North Malaysia in cricket but it was in hockey that he excelled.

When he was 13, Sungkai-born Yoges lost his father, who was the right hand to British rubber estate managers, and the family moved to Tapah, Perak.

While helping his mother to make ends meet, Yoges, the fourth in a family of 11, also found comfort in the playing field.

He said his first hockey stick was a gift from Aminullah Karim, who played for Malaysia in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

His first hockey coach was the late civil servant, Abdul Hamid Aroop, the father of Tapah-born former chief secretary to the government, Ahmad Sarji.

Hamid, who represented Perak and Malaysia in hockey and cricket and the state in football, turned Yoges’ school, Tapah Government English School (now SM Buyong Aidil), into a hockey force.

Since the school field was the only one available, the boys improved their hockey by providing opposition to European planters and soldiers of the British-led forces that fought communist terrorists during the First Malayan Emergency (1948-1960).

At 17, Yoges captained his school to win the national schools hockey tournament which was held to celebrate Independence Day in 1957.

“I scored 13 out of the school’s 18 goals in the competition, and the reward was a seat each for every player at Merdeka Stadium to witness Tunku Abdul Rahman declare Independence,” Yoges said.

In 1959, he earned his first national cap when he was selected to play against South Korea at Merdeka Stadium where he would be a regular feature.

It was the start of a celebrated hockey playing career, which included two Asian Games in Jakarta (1962) and Bangkok (1966) and the Olympics in Tokyo (1964) and Mexico (1968).

He was recognised as one of the best left wingers in the world when he made the Asian All-Stars team in 1966 at a time when India and Pakistan dominated grass hockey.

The highpoint of his Merdeka Stadium days came as assistant to head coach, the late Ho Koh Chye, at the 1975 hockey World Cup, the 47th anniversary of which is tomorrow.

Yoges recalled an absorbing story about the hockey career of captain N Sri Shanmuganathan whose winning goal against defending champions Holland put Malaysia in the semi-final of the World Cup.

He said misery struck when an inexperienced Sri Shan of Selangor and a rugged looking, handle bar-moustachioed Tara Singh from Negeri Sembilan were vying for a fullback position in the 1968 Mexico Olympics team.

“I was in the centre of something tragic that happened to Tara two days before the final selection for the Lahore Invitational in preparation for Mexico.

“Many who played with me knew never to come into my line of fire when I am on full flight and making a cross from the left, especially a ‘wrong foot’ cross, a very rare skill I picked up from cricket.

“Many a man did and many a man fell. Poor Tara did and he fell, resulting in a fractured ankle. I virtually cried for him,” he said.

Tara’s dream of a first national cap was crushed. Sri Shan, who had just begun playing hockey three months ago as left-inside, was in.

Tara continued playing for Negeri Sembilan while Yoges retired from international hockey in 1969 at the age of 29.

Yoges knows all about despair. He cheated death thrice and endured the disappointment of missing out on the 1960 Olympics as the OCM did not have the funds to send a hockey team.

In 1983, he suffered a heart attack while managing three Malaysian veterans hockey teams at a tournament in Adelaide.

Eight years later, he was struck by lightning while playing golf at the Sentul Golf Club and days later suffered another severe heart attack at the Morib golf course.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he suffered another type of grief when with 37 seconds of play left, Pakistan levelled the score 2-2 from a penalty corner to put his team out of semi-final contention.

It was the final Olympics and last stint as manager of the national hockey team for Yoges who has served on the coaching and selection committees of then Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF).

Yoges has had his heart in grassroots development since his teaching days in St Michael’s Institution and Anglo Chinese School in Ipoh from 1963 to 1973.

He went on doing the thing that he loved so much as a sports officer with the national sports council from 1974 to 1983 and later as head of administration with RHB Bank.

Has he done enough for hockey? “I have done enough but nothing is enough. Presently, I am involved with the Asian Hockey Academy, based in Ipoh, to train coaches and players in collaboration with Asian Hockey Federation.”

He said the academy was set up in 2012 in memory of the former MHF president, Sultan Azlan Shah, and his son Raja Ashman Shah for their immense contributions to hockey.

Yoges said the growth of Malaysian hockey hinged on clubs seriously focusing on junior development programmes, with the direct involvement of parents.

“If you want your children to be champions, then parents must start thinking like champions,” said Yoges, who was inducted into the OCM Hall of Fame in 2014 and made a Datuk for his services to hockey.