The Hockey Museum (THM) was very proud to receive a visit recently (28 March 2017) from Juan Calzado, former President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), European Hockey Federation (EHF) and Real Club de Polo, Barcelona. We were honoured that on a holiday visit to London with family he took time to visit THM in Woking.

Not only did he see the Museum’s expanding collection but gave us an oral history interview that will appear on our website in due course.

From the interview Juan told us that as well as his impressive administrative career he was an international player of some repute having played for Spain in the Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games. Having won a bronze medal at the Rome Olympics Juan is the only FIH President to have been an Olympic medallist.

He also mentioned that as a player with Real Club de Polo, Barcelona he visited the Folkestone Festival in the halcyon days of festival hockey. Back then visiting teams would present a club pennant to commemorate the occasion. THM holds the Folkestone Festival Archive and, following a brief interrogation of our collections database, we were delighted to reunite Juan with the pennant he presented to the Folkestone Festival some fifty years previously.

Juan Calzado and Mike Smith (THM Curator) with the RCPB pennant last held by Juan half a century ago.
In the background are posters from the two Olympic Games (Rome ’60 and Tokyo ’64) that he played in.

Mike Smith, 30 April 2016