FULL NAME: Arupananda Routray
GENDER: Male
DATE OF BIRTH: 1 July, 1940
FAMILY: Father (Late Narendra Kumar Routray), Mother (Late Kuntala Kumari Routray); Brothers (Late Sudhanshu Sekhar Routray, Swarup Routray, Avin Routray); Wife (Krishna Kumari Routray); Daughters (Sasmita Das, Rohini Patnaik, Ipsita Routray).
HOME ADDRESS: Jayapur, Balianta, Khurda, Odisha, India.
EDUCATION: Studied at Balianta ME School, Balianta and Biswambhar Bidyapitha, Puri.
PROFESSION: Worked at Defence Services (1955 to 1968) and Rourkela Steel Plant (1969 to 2000).
ROLE IN BASKETBALL: Player-turned-coach
TYPE OF PLAYER: Forward
RECEIVED COACHING FROM: Lt Col  Birbal Singh (Services)
TEAMS PLAYED FOR: Odisha, Services, Rourkela Steel Plant, India

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS AS PLAYER:

INTERNATIONAL:
*     Represented India at the 3rd Asian Basketball Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1965.
*     Represented India Arab League, playing matches in most of the Gulf countries.
*     Played and led Rourkela Steel Plant team in an international invitation tournament in Sri Lanka in 1973.

NATIONAL:
*     He was part of the Services team that won the Senior National Basketball Championship five times.
*     Represented Odisha in Senior National Championship as a player 15/16 times, till 1995.

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS AS COACH:
*     Did duty as Head Coach of the National team which played a series of 5-6 matches against an American team at different cities, including Tata and Rourkela.
*     Did duty as Assistant Coach of the National team during tour of seven Gulf countries.
*     Did duty as head coach of Odisha State team in Senior National Championship many times.

AWARDS/HONOURS:
*     Odisha Sports Journalists Association felicitated him with the OSJA Annual Award for Life-Time Achievement on its 7th Foundation Day Function in KIIT Campus, Bhubaneswar on 21 March 2022.
*     Bagged the Kamal Ganguly Memorial Sports Award for the year 2017 in Bhubaneswar.
*     The Odisha Government honoured him with the Biju Patnaik Life-time Achievement Award in 2002.

OTHER IMPORTANT DATA:
*     He happens to be the first basketball international of Odisha.
*     Joined Army in February 1955 at the age of 14 while studying in Class IX.
*     Married Krishna Kumari in 1964.
*     Picked up basketball under the guidance of Services coach Birbal Singh.
*     Balbir Singh told him to basket daily and in order to achieve the target, Routray used to throw the ball 1000 to 2000 times.
*     Joined Senior National Basketball Camp for the first time at Trivandrum in 1956.
*     During his playing days, Services team was full of Punjab players and out of 12 players only Routray and Khushi Ram of Haryana were from other states.
*     With a height of 5 feet 11 inches, Routray used to stop opponents as tall as 6 feet 4 inches from scoring.
*     When Routray played Senior National Championship in Cuttack, Biju Patnaik was the president of the Basketball Federation of India.
*     Routray was selected in the National team by Philino legend Lauro Mumar, the then head head coach of Indian basketball team.
*     Made Senior National debut as a member of Services team in 1957.
*     When Routray made his international debut, Indian players had no shoes and Bata company provided them free shoes, the cost of which was Rs 17 per pair.
*     Became a coach after successfully completing a one-year course at National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala.
*     Also studied engineering while serving in Army.
*     But for his love to play basketball, he could have been an engineer.
*     Left Services in 1968 due to lack of opportunity to play National championships.
*     After quitting Army, Routray worked as Odisha State basketball coach for eight months at Cuttack.
*     Joined Rourkela Steel Plant in 1969, thanks to former Odisha Ranji team captain L I Parija, who was then at the helm of affairs there.
*     While at Rourkela Steel Plant, Routray promoted the sport in different capacity, forming a strong RSP team and organising tournaments in the Steel City.
*     But did not accept full-time coaching job as he wanted to continue his playing career as long as possible.
*     Retired from Rourkela Steel Plant as Manager (Sports) in 2000 and returned to his village Jayapur.
*     Represented Odisha in Senior National Championship when there was no opportunity to turn up for Services.

PROFILE FIRST UPLOADED: 11 July, 2010
PROFILE LAST UPDATED: 21 March, 2022