Durham Wasps founding member 'wished he hadn't left the team'

BBC News

30-05-2025

A founding member of one of the UK's most successful hockey teams wished he had not left it to play elsewhere, his son has said.William Russell Proudfoot, known as Russ, was one of the first men to play for the Durham Wasps when it was formed in 1946.His son, Chris Proudfoot, said his dad had "left his mark" and missed the Wasps when he started playing for Liverpool in the late 1940s, following a dispute with the owner of Durham Ice Rink. "To be at the conception of something and to start it off... he was one of the founders so you can't say more than that. He left his mark," Mr Proudfoot said.
Russ's hockey past has been remembered amid a project to commemorate Durham's ice rink, which closed in 1996.Memorabilia is being collected and local artist Lewis Hobson is planning to create a mural celebrating the venue, which was demolished in 2013.Reading about the project prompted his family to contact the BBC to offer some of his items and they shared his story.
Russ was born in 1923 and briefly lived in Canada as a child before returning to County Durham in the late 1920s.But hockey did not find him until after the end of the war, which had brought Canadian pilots to the area."The locals saw them doing this and they started joining in and they formed a team," his son said.
Mr Proudfoot recalls his dad telling him about the freezing cold ice baths he used to take after getting "a real good pounding on the backside with a stick" during a game."He remembered going into the changing rooms, virtually struggling to walk and somebody just filled a bucket of water and pushed them into the bucket."So he was left sitting in the bucket of water, to cool yourself down and stop it from bruising."
Although the team went on to achieve remarkable success in the 1980s, Mr Proudfoot said it had humble beginnings."It was rough. I remember my dad saying that," the 68-year-old said.Mr Proudfoot said the players had no protective clothing so his dad, who had served in the Navy, helped kit out the team with clothing such as thick jumpers."It was a violent sport, it still is a violent sport. Durham Wasps came out of nothing, but they were unbeatable, year after year after year," he said.Russ left the Wasps in the late 1940s after a dispute over pay with the owner of the ice rink, John "Icy" Smith.He went to play for Liverpool - but Mr Proudfoot said his dad later regretted his decision. "He said one of the things he wished he had never done was go [there]."
Russ's hockey career came to an end in the early 1950s and he returned to his hometown Ferryhill and became a baker.Mr Proudfoot said his dad never took him to the ice rink but he went himself and watched the Wasps as a teenager. His mum was also a semi-professional ice dancer - but the skill did not rub off on him."I was a terrible ice skater. I could get around, but not good enough to play ice hockey," he recalled.Mr Proudfoot, who now lives in Sunderland, said it was important to commemorate Durham Ice Rink because "it's not there anymore". "It's not as if someone can go down, a young kid, and say: 'How long has it been here? What's this?'," he said. "They can't do that, there's no-one there. There's no ice hockey. There's nothing. So the history is all there is."
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