Back in the 40s and 50s, Bengal had strong teams in Calcutta Customs and Port Commissioners in Kolkatta, and Bengal-Nagpur Railway in Kharagpur.
Bengal went on to win the 1952 national hockey championship held in Kolkatta. They snapped Punjab's hat-trick of national hockey titles that year.
It took two matches to decide the 1952 championship. The first match ended in a goalless draw, before Bengal wrested the trophy from Punjab in the replay.
Over the years Bengal has produced Olympians like Pat Jansen, Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt, Gurbaksh Singh, Joginder Singh, Inam-ur-Rehman and Thoiba Singh, among others.
The photograph below shows a match played in Kolkatta between Bengal XI and a New Zealand team touring India in 1947-48. Pat Jansen is seated fifth from the left.