Jones, Russell Anderson

BORN SEPTEMBER 1ST 1926, in Carlton in Melbourne, Australia, he began hockey in his late-teens at the practice sessions held during the war when competitive hockey was suspended. A product of the St Moritz rink school under the tutelage of Bertie White and Ken Stott, he had absorbed their teachings so well by age 19, he was ready to take his place in the Eastern Suburbs side when competition resumed after the War.

He played 163 games for Demons IHC, Melbourne, 1946-9 and 1954-64, scoring 45 Goals, 20 Assists, 3 Hat-tricks and only 6 Penalty Minutes in 17 seasons. He gained his state team blazer in 1946, replacing Pat Nichol, who dropped out to go to Sydney for the Brown Trophy. A snappy, fast-skating left-winger by then, he was considered to have the greatest potential among the classy young crop of players coming into the game. His first regular line was with Ray Sullivan at centre and Teddy Eldred on the right wing.

In 1947, just turned 20, he was the youngest in age and experience to ever coach a senior hockey team in just his second year of the sport. Eastern Suburbs was renamed Demons and he said his line-mates then — Bertie White and Ronny Stewart — were the best he played with at the Club. In addition to his appointment as Demons coach, he became a regular member of the Victorian side, and was in the team that won the Goodall Cup for the first time in 22 years. He won nine Goodall Cups as a player (1947, '49, '51, '52, '54, '55, '61, '62, '65) and three as coach (1965, '67, '68).

His first year of coaching climaxed with the Demons in the final four and, although beaten by Monarchs in a semi-final, it was the Club's best season since its formation. He remained coach for another two years before transferring to the crack Raiders team on a line with Jan Kurzweil and Geoff Henke. He said this was the best club line he ever played on, in the best team he had ever played with. Raiders won both his seasons in 1952 and '53. He then returned to the Demons and resumed coaching in 1953 when Frank Chase left. The pair did not get along. He was Demon's Head Coach for 14 seasons. Regarded as the ideal skater, with a low centre of balance, and one of the best puck handlers in the game, he moved to defense by the mid-1950s to better direct younger team members, crowning his all-star career with the 1955 President's Medal — the state association's Best and Fairest.

The first ever Demons IHC Senior A-grade coach, he gave the Club a total of 14 years, 1946–9, 1954–7, 1959–64. At age 33, he was Vice Captain of Australia and second-top point scorer in the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley, USA. He played in the World Championships in 1962 where Australia produced its first ever international win. Captain of the Olympic Playoffs team in 1963-4, he retired from coaching in the late-1960s, but played old-timer hockey for Melbourne Nite Owls from the late-1980s until 2010, and also the Pacemakers 45 in 2008. At 84, he played in the 2009 Rematch of the Century for the centenary celebration of ice hockey in Victoria. His skating was careful and still superb.

In 1948, Sports journalist Ron Casey wrote, his "... effort against New South Wales in the second game of the Goodall series in 1947 will go down in history. It really was a brilliant score". He and Al Sengotta had set up a 2-0 lead in the first, and Victoria went on to win the Cup decider, 3-1, after almost a quarter-century in the wilderness. French Canadian, Claude Hamil, Bombers goalie and NSW state team coach in Sydney in 1952 said, "Although not up to the standard of Canada, Sweden or America, Australia compares well with the Continental Countries. I would rate the 1952 Victorian forward line of Rus Jones, Al Sengotta and David Cunningham equal to any in Europe."

Selected by his state association to carry the Olympic Torch in the 1956 Olympics torch relay, he was awarded Life Membership of the Demons in 1964 and Club Legend in 2007. Life Memberships of both state and national associations followed, and he was Patron of his state association until his death suddenly at age 86 years on October 1st, 2012. Made a Legend of Oldtimers Ice Hockey in 2011, the A-grade League Champions cup was awarded annually in his name from 2008 until 2014 when the H H Kleiner Trophy was reinstated. A Perpetual Trophy in his name is awarded to the Most Valuable Player of the Reserve grade.