Celebrating Hashim Khan: Google Doodle honours Pakistani squash player who won the British Open Squash Championships

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates fabulous Pakistani squash player Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان), generally honored as one of the sport’s all-time greatest players. On 3 April in 1951, Khan won the British Open Squash Championships encouraging him from relative obscurity to the status of an international icon.

Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) was born in 1914 in Nawakille. Khan was brought up in Peshawar, a small town in what was then India. The specific birthdate is unknown. As indicated by his family members, he turned 100 on 1 July 2014 (the family praised his birthday on 1 July).

Hashim Khan SI TQA was a squash player from Pakistan. He won the British Open Squash Championships (the then de facto world championship) a total of seven times, from 1951 to 1956, and afterward again in 1958. Khan was the patriarch of the Khan squash family, which dominated the sport from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Hashim Khan’s dad, Abdullah Khan, was the Head Steward at a club in Peshawar where British army officials positioned in the territory played squash. As a youngster, Khan served as an unpaid ball boy at the club, recovering balls that were hit out of court by the officials.

At the point when the officials had completed the process of playing, Khan and the other ball boys would take over the courts. Learning the ropes of the sport while on his off-hours, Khan played shoeless on the club’s rough brick courts—an early testament of his tenacity.

Hashim Khan’s dad passed on in a car accident when he was 11, and he left school to become a ball boy, bringing balls for the squash players and cleaner of the squash courts.

In 1942, Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) became a squash coach at a British Air Force officials’ mess. In 1944, he won the first All-of-India squash championship in Bombay and successfully protected this title for the next two years. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he was selected as a squash professional at the Pakistan Air Force and won the first Pakistani squash championship in 1949.

By age 28, Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) became a squash pro and soon after, a national champion of the sport. After winning three All-of-India titles, the newly independent government of Pakistan drafted him to represent the nation at the 1951 British Open.

Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) dominated during his first appearance at the British Open, thought about squash’s world championship at the time and proceeded to bring home the grand prize. He came back to Pakistan a national legend with a million people welcoming him upon his appearance. This amazing triumph became the first hurrah of the Hashim Khan family’s squash dynasty.

Throughout the next 46 years, the competition was won 29 times by either he or one of his family members, including eminent players Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan. Setting up a career that earned him a spot in the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame, Hashim Khan won seven British Opens, five British Professional Championships, three U.S. Opens, and three Canadian Opens.

Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) won Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1958, Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam by the Government of Pakistan in 1959 and Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) Award by the Government of Pakistan in 2008.

On 18 August 2014, Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) passed on in his home in Aurora, Colorado because of congestive heart failure. He was generally believed to be 100 years of age.

Hashim Khan (ہاشم خان) was known for his sportsmanship soul. Demonstrating respect for different players, he generally permitted his rivals to leave the court first.