The first name of any boxer in the winners' list of the "Arjuna Award" was the name of L. Buddy D' Souza who won it in the year of 1961. Hav. P. Badadur Mal was influenced by him and he did try hard and perform very well only to win the award in the very next year that is in 1962. After as 4 years' gap from the year of 1962, Hawa Singh won it in 1966. The boxers continued to win the award quite regularly with occasional gaps after 1966 and in the year of 1968, Hav. Dennis Swamy became the winner. The award was named after Hav. Muniswamy Venu in 1971 and in 1972, it went to Hav. Chandranarayanan. Hav. Mehatab Singh won it in the very next year in 1973 and it was won by B.S. Thapa in the years of 1977-78.
