By Saba Nayakan
CHENNAI: The Sports Journalists’ Federation of India (SJFI) and its affiliate, Tamil Nadu Sports Journalists’ Association (TNSJA), honoured three super senior sports journalists here recently.
The three were former SJFI President Mr. S. Thyagarajan of The Hindu, Mr. V.P. Vijaykumar of The Indian Express and Mr. T.R. Ranganathan of The Hindu.
The SJFI in its AGM in Ahmedabad in 2023 took a decision to honour all sports journalists who are 80 years and above and identified 15 (4 in Delhi, 3 in Kolkata, 3 in Chennai, 2 in Hyderabad, 1 in Pune, 1 in Guwahati and 1 in Bengaluru) in the first lot for felicitation.
A citation and an SJFI medal were presented to all of them for their distinguished service to sports journalism in India.
Thyagarajan retired from The Hindu in 2014. He started his career with the Indian Express in Madras in 1961 and switched over to The Hindu the following year.
He covered six Olympics, nine Asian Games and nine hockey World Cup tournaments besides several other international meets.
He served on the committees of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF). Thyagarajan was also on AIPS’ Hockey Commission.
Thyagarajan was a former president of both SJFI and TNSJA.
V. Baskaran, the captain of the Indian hockey team that won the gold medal at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, felicitated Thyagarajan.
V.P. Vijaykumar, who was a veteran at The Indian Express, began his career with The Mail here in Chennai in 1959. He moved over to The Indian Express in 1964 and called it a day in 1991 after a distinguished career where he covered almost all sports. His favourite sports were football and tennis.
Vijaykumar was known for his lucid and incisive writing. On the sports desk he was a ‘giant’ possessing great editing skill and produced very attractive sports pages.
T.R. Ranganathan, oldest among the three, was essentially a desk man at the sports desk of The Hindu.
All three are in good health and greatly appreciate the SJFI recognition bestowed on them.
