Pamela Bilalova
BBC News, North East and Kumbriya
Beamish, North Living Museum
Ras Proudfoot, third place to right to right, painted in 1947, first Durham wasp wasp, was one of the players
A founding member of one of the most successful hockey teams of Britain wished that he did not leave it anywhere else, his son said.
William Russell Proudfoot, known as Rasa, was one of the first men to play for Durham wasp when formed in 1946.
His son, Chris proudfoot, stated that his father “left his mark” and Durham began to play for Liverpool in the late 1940s following a dispute with the Ice Rink owner.
“To be in the concept of something and start it … he was one of the founders, so you could not say more than this. He left his mark,” said Mr. Proudfoot.
The hockey past of the juice has been remembered in the midst of a project to remember Durham’s ice rink, which was closed in 1996.
Memorabilia is being collected and local artist Lewis Hobson plans to create a wall, which was demolished in 2013.
From reading about the project, his family motivated him to contact the BBC to offer some of his items and shared his story.
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Ras Proudfoot joined the 16 -year -old South Shields Marine School and served in the Navy during World War Two
Rasa was born in 1923 and lived briefly in Canada as a child before returning to County Durham in the late 1920s.
But Hockey did not find it until the end of the war, which brought the Canadian pilots to the area.
“Local people saw him doing this and they started joining it and they formed a team,” his son said.
Recalling his father, Mr. Proudfoot said that he used to tell about the cold cold snow bath after receiving “a real good fasting on the backside with a stick during a game.
“He remembered that going to the changing room, was actually struggling to walk and someone filled only one bucket and pushed them into the bucket.
“So he was sitting in a bucket of water, to cool himself and to prevent him from injury.”
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Ras proudfoot, left to second back to right, helping wasp to get clothes initially
Although the team achieved remarkable success in the 1980s, Mr. Proudfoot said it was a humble beginning.
The 68 -year -old said, “It was rough. I remember my father said,” 68 -year -old said.
Mr. Proudfoot said that the players had no protective clothes, so his father, who served in the Navy helped the team out the kit with thick jumping clothes.
“It was a violent game, it is still a violent game. The Durham wasp came out of nothing, but he was unbeatable, year -the -year -year -year -Sal,” he said.
Ras left the wasp in the late 1940s after a dispute over payment with John “Snow” Smith, the owner of the ice rink.
He went to play for Liverpool – but Mr. Proudfoot said that his father later regretted his decision.
“He said one of them wanted him to never do it [there],
Beamish, North Living Museum
Durham wasp, painted in 1961, reached a big success in the 1980s
Ras’s hockey career ended in the early 1950s and returned to his hometown Pheriil and became a baker.
Mr. Proudfoot said that his father never took him to the rink of snow but he saw himself as a teenager.
His mother was also a semi -seller ice dancer – but Kaushal could not rub it on her.
“I was a terrible ice skater. I could be around, but was not enough to play ice hockey,” he said.
Mr. Proudfoot, who now lives in Sunderland, said it was important to remember Durham Ice Rink because “it is no more”.
“It’s not that a person can go down, a young child, and says: ‘How long is this here?”, “He said.
“They cannot do this, there is no one. There is no ice hockey. There is nothing. So there is history.”