Built like a bank vault, the fullback terrorised defenders and attackers as he pursued the sport with great pride and delight.

Vias touched the senses: the sight of his imposing frame, the short corner rockets and the taste of fear and joy.

According to hockey great R Yogeswaran, there was Vias’ sixth sense: the ability to perceive a defender’s weakness, to conceive the catastrophe before he made it happen.

“Many have faced this wall of a man on the left side of the hockey defence, or found themselves perilously in the path of his thunderous short corners,” said Vias’ godson, Claudian Navin Stanislaus.

Yogeswaran and Stanislaus were among the many people who paid tribute to Vias, who was of that generation, who, when their playing career was over, put so much back into sport.

“He embodied the amateur spirit, serving sport as an athlete and later as an administrator,” said Yogeswaran, a 1960s Olympian and former national coach and manager.

Vias’ death leaves three others as the country’s oldest living Olympians: P Alagendra, 93, (hockey) Ronnie Theseira, 92, (fencing) and M Harichandra, 91, (athletics).

Vias, Alagendra and Harichandra were part of Malaya’s first contingent that competed in the 1956 Melbourne Games, while Theseira represented Malaysia at the 1964 Games in Tokyo.

Vias was captain of the Federation of Malaya hockey team in 1954, and vice-captain of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics squad that was led by R Selvanayagam.

The team comprised other stars like Peter van Huizen, M Shanmuganathan, Chua Eng Cheng, Mike Shepherdson, Aminullah Karim, Sheikh Ali Sheikh Mohamed and Gian Singh.

They trained together for a few days before leaving for Melbourne, went there without a coach, and had to foot the bill for their trip. Malaya finished ninth out of 12 teams.

Stanislaus said Vias was far from a one-trick pony as he played almost every sport that was available at the time.

“Be it cricket, football, tennis, badminton, golf or even baseball, which he picked up during the Japanese Occupation, he never played a sport he didn’t like or excel in.

“Freddie, as he was popularly known, was indeed popular not least because of his dashing good looks, suave demeanour and perpetual broad smile.”

Vias was first introduced to sport during his schooling days at St John’s Institution in Kuala Lumpur, following in his father’s footsteps playing hockey, cricket and football for Selangor Indian Association.

But soon with his father as coach, he was playing some sport or other all year round, as in those days each sport was played at different periods of the year, enabling him to become a multi-talented sportsman.

His breakthrough came when he made the national hockey team in 1945 at the age of 16.

Stanislaus said: “By the time I came into the picture, my godpa had retired from representing the country in hockey for about a decade, but he was no less a ‘man mountain’ to me.

“I am not sure if either my father or Uncle Freddie knew the term ‘bagai isi dengan kuku’ (inseparable friends), but that summed up their relationship, as was the norm in those days when friendships were blood bonds.

“So tight were they that he was the one who went to India on my dad’s behalf to check out the girl my brother was courting.

“His ‘boleh tahan’ (not bad) review was undoubtedly the endorsement that was required for my brother and sister in-law to eventually get married.

“As much as Uncle Freddie is family, so is Aunty Rita, his loving wife, who had to not only put up with the shenanigans of his many friends over the years but also the little runts that came in tow, tearing through her home.”

Stanislaus said that after Vias quit playing hockey for the nation, he continued to serve the country initially in the ministry of social welfare and later at the ministry of culture, youth and sports.

“Sports being very much a part of who he is, Uncle Freddie continued to contribute as a qualified hockey and cricket umpire and also in many administrative positions.”

Vias was instrumental in the formation of the National Sports Council and was its second director-general for nine months from April 1981.

He also mooted the idea of the SAS veterans hockey team to the late Sultan Ahmad Shah and coached and managed the outfit until the early 1990s.

Vias’ contributions to the country and to sport particularly were recognised when he was asked to be one of the 80 torchbearers on the Malaysian leg of the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay.

He had four years earlier been inducted into the Olympic Council of Malaysia Hall of Fame for his role in the development of sport.

Stanislaus said: “Uncle Freddie was a unicorn of sorts, a mystic breed of Malaysian sportsmen who chose to excel in whatever they pursued on and off the field, and put in the effort and time to rise to the top.

“He was a professional sportsman in a time of amateur sports when you needed a job in order to subsidise your passion to play.

“He was a gem of a man and a legend whose story I want my daughters to know, as should our future generations.”

The wake will be at the Paul Miki Room, St Francis Xavier Church basement, today and tomorrow from 2pm-9pm. The funeral mass will be at 10am on Friday before the cremation at MBPJ Crematorium, Kampung Tunku, Petaling Jaya.