Nation builder

What first caught the eye was the proclamation on the pedestal: "A National Leader...". Usually such bombastic terms are used for local politicians, so it was a surprise seeing these words for a statue inside the YMCA campus at Nandanam. But a quick search shows that Puthenpurayil Mathew Joseph is indeed a national leader for his work in the field of physical education, and he was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1967. 

It seems to have been quite by chance that he got into that field. It was not that Joseph needed to be told about the benefits of exercise and sports; he was very much into it, even as a young chemist in Madras' leather industry of the 1920s. His daily sport and exercise routine at the George Town YMCA was what caught the attention of Harry Crowe Buck, who had founded the YMCA College of Physical Education in 1920. Buck persuaded the young Joseph that there was a future in sports and had him complete his course at the College. Joseph then went to Madurai as the Physical Education Director of the American College there. Buck encouraged Joseph to study further, and helped him receive a scholarship to study at Springfield College, Mass., USA where he met James Naismith (the 'inventor' of basketball). 

Coming back to India in the early 1930s, James joined Buck to teach at the YMCA-CPE, but moved out to become the first Principal of the Government College of Physical Education at Bombay. As India became independent, James, now back in Madras as the Principal of the YMCA-CPE, was tapped to be part of the drafting committee for the National Plan for Physical Education. Part of that plan was to set up institutions to train instructors and coaches; and in 1957, James left Chennai again, to go to Gwalior as the first Principal of the Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, and stayed on there till his retirement in 1967. His love for sport and fitness must have been instrumental in his having a long life; he passed away in 1999, when he was 95 years old (I must get back to that strange coincidence of the dates!). The one person who beat him at that was his wife, who passed away in 2013, when she was 105!