A hockey great whose influence extended well beyond the field, the multi-faceted Dr Vece Paes was a rare combination of sporting and academic excellence that healed and helped athletes across disciplines.
Paes, 80, breathed his last in Kolkata early this morning after battling multiple age-related ailments, including the debilitating Parkinson's disease.
To those who knew him closely Paes was a mild-mannered, and highly intelligent man, who did the country proud on the hockey field with an Olympic medal (bronze in 1972, Munich Games) and later helped hockey, cricket, tennis and even football with his sports medicine expertise.
He was also the father of a very famous son, whose career he shaped with his gentle guidance.
Leander Paes never missed a chance to tell the world how much his father meant to him and his career. Paes senior was his manager too for a long time and served as the Indian Davis Cup team's doctor for a decade. The father-son duo made for one of the most famous sporting combinations in India.
"He was so dedicated to sports medicine that he fully concentrated on it after his hockey career. He had helped a number of Indian athletes in his sports medicine career," recalled former player and Paes' teammate during the 1972 Games Ajit Pal Singh.
Decades later, another India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha found Dr Paes as the team's doctor during the Athens 2004 Olympics. Rasquinha on Thursday mourned the loss of an "incredible human being." "They do not make them like Doc (Dr. Paes) anymore. So knowledgeable, so warm, so kind, so humble, so jovial. Always willing to help. Always joking around. I will forever miss you Doc. You were the absolute best," he posted in a heartfelt tribute on X.
Aside from hockey, Paes also dabbled in divisional level football, cricket and rugby, going on to serve as the president of the Indian Rugby Union from 1996 to 2002.
He gave back to all these sports too.
Paes was a part of the BCCI's anti-doping programme for several years, besides also working with the Asian Cricket Council and the Indian Davis Cup team.
He also worked with the East Bengal football team and players like former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia on the insistence of then coach Subhas Bhowmick.
Paes, who also served as the president of the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, was married to former basketball player Jennifer Paes.
"It is a very sad day for Indian sports, especially hockey. Paes was a highly educated and soft-spoken person. He used to help us with his guidance on sports medicine," Ajit Pal said.
"We both played as centre-half in the 1972 Olympics team and he was terrific. I was one-and-and-half years younger to him and he used to guide me," the legendary former player added.
Paes completed his pre-medical course from Kolkata's reputed Presidency College, in 1964-65. He also attended La Martiniere College in Lucknow.
Former captain of Indian men's hockey team, B P Govinda, remembered him as a highly talented and informed person and said if not for politics within the federation, he could have been a part of the 1968 Olympics.
"He was super talented both in sports and sports medicine. Sports medicine was his passion. We played together in the 1972 Olympics, but I feel he should have been in the 1968 Olympics team as well if not for internal politics.
"...it didn't matter to him as he was a very soft-spoken, and a true gentleman. He never complained about anything. He just wanted to give back to sports which he did in many ways and Leander is a prime example of that," Govinda said.
Another one of his teammates Harbinder Singh had similar memories of the man, whose legacy is truly inspiring.
"He was a true gentleman...a very good distributor and tackler. And he had a good, strong physique too," Harbinder said.
"It's a sad day for Indian hockey. I played a lot against him in domestic circuit. He used to play for Bengal and I used to play for Railways," he remembered.
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