Captain Hawa Singh was a heavyweight boxer. Born on 16th December, 1937, in the Umarwas village of Bhiwani district, Haryana. He remained a dominant player in his weight class for a decade. He joined the Indian Army in the year 1956, when he was only 19 years old. It was the army that introduced him to boxing, by 1960, he became a champion of the Western Command. From 1961 to 1972, he won the National Championships 11 consecutive times, a record that no Indian boxer has been able to beat till date. He was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 1966. In the year 1968, the Chief of Army Staff honored him with the Best Sportsman Trophy.

International Career: Highlights

• He couldn’t attend the 1962 Asian Games due to the border issues with China.
• He won consecutive gold medals at the 1966 and 1970 Asian Games in the heavyweight category, making him the only Indian boxer to do so.
• At the 1974 Asian Games, he knocked out his opponent in the final round but a controversial decision by the referee deprived him of the gold medal.

After retiring from the sport in the late 1980s, he continued to work for the development of boxing in India. He joined the Sports Authority of India in 1986 and later went on to establish the Bhiwani Boxing Club.

In 2008, 4 boxers from this club participated in the olympics. Vijender Singh who won a bronze medal at the olympics was one of them.
In 2000, the Government of India conferred him with the Dronacharya Award, however, he passed away on 14th August, 2000, just 15 days before he was supposed to receive the award.