Manuel Frederick possessed the holy grail PT Usha missed, but Kerala failed him

Sometimes, a famous sporting win is overshadowed by a famous near miss. The athlete who secured a priceless medal is forgotten, and the one who so nearly made it to the podium is remembered. Strangely, in both cases, the athletes are not at fault.

Take Manuel Frederick and P T Usha, for example. The latter needs no introduction, and it is said that one could send a postcard with just her name on it and it would find its way to the correct address. But even in his early 70s, legendary hockey goalkeeper Frederick couldn't wish for an inland to reach him because he had no address of his own. It was only in 2018 that the veteran got a home built by the state government at Payyambalam in Kannur.

Usha, the queen of Indian track & field, is celebrated for her accomplishments, and more famously for missing an Olympic medal in 400-metre hurdles by 1/100th of a second in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. On the contrary, Frederick was not a household name in Kerala despite being the first Malayali to secure an Olympic medal. He was the custodian of the Indian men's hockey team that clinched bronze in the 1972 Munich Games.

It took 48 more years for another Malayali to stand on an Olympic podium. P R Sreejesh claimed a bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Games and bagged another four years later in Paris. On Friday, when Frederick died in Bengaluru at 78, Sreejesh wrote: "The man who stood tall between the posts now rests among legends. Thank you for inspiring generations. Rest in peace, legend."

Yet, Frederick did not live in peace. He was constantly overlooked for sporting honours. Even as six members of the 1972 Olympic team were feted with the Arjuna Award, and two others with Padma Shri, Frederick was never considered. His applications for the Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement were rejected eight times, until 2019, when Frederick received his due on the ninth attempt.

For many years, the Kerala government refused to recognise him because he stayed in Bengaluru for work. The Karnataka government didn't honour him either because they did not see him as their own. As a result, Frederick was, reportedly, never nominated by either of the states for Padma Awards.

However, Frederick's CV was too good to be ignored. He was part of the Indian team for seven years, winning test series in England, Pakistan, the Netherlands, West Germany and Malaysia, among other countries. He inspired the Army Services Corps to 21 national titles, helped HAL lift seven, and also secured honours for UP, Karnataka and Mohun Bagan.

Frederick lived in a rented facility in Bengaluru with his wife and two daughters. Even in his 70s, he worked as a coach, and often said he was willing to offer his services if the Kerala government supported.

Eventually, Kerala decided to help and awarded him three cents to construct a house, but there were technical problems because the allotted land fell under the Coastal Economic Zone. By the time the hurdles were removed and a house was ready, Frederick needed the care of his family, so he moved back to Bengaluru and lived there until his passing.