Trudeau, Russ

BORN IN 1946 in Canada, his father was a regimental sergeant-major in the mostly French-speaking Van Doos; the Royal 22nd Regiment (R22R) of the Canadian Army. He attended Quebec High School (1959-64) and joined the Canadian army in 1964. In 1967, he graduated in Arts from Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, and in 1969-70 he graduated from the first Basic Logistics Officer course and became a Captain with Logistics (former Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps) serving in Shilo, Clinton, and Kingston. He played hockey for the Canadian Forces Base Shilo base team as well as in the Canadian Forces Base Borden hockey league at Barrie, Ontario, north of Toronto.

He left the army in 1970 and graduated with a Bachelor of Education from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario (1971). He pursued a career as a Special Needs teacher in Australia with the Education Departments of New South Wales (1971-2), the Evelyn Unger School in Edmonton, Alberta (1973-4, 1978-9) and in Queensland Australia (1975-77, 1980-2011). He completed a Master of Education and a Graduate Diploma in Special Education at Griffith University in Queensland, also studying at the Universities of Alberta and Queensland.

In 1972 he played for the St George team in the Sydney competition. He was a winger with the New South Wales Goodall Cup team that year losing to Victoria in the three-game series at Oakleigh, Ringwood, and St Moritz in St Kilda. He was selected from that series for the Australian team. In Queensland, he joined the Brisbane Red Wings in 1975. In that year he was playing coach of the Queensland Brown Trophy team, winning the competition for the state for the first time ever. In 1976 he was again playing coach of the state team which was the Goodall Cup runner-up. In 1977, he was again playing coach of Queensland, leading the team to its one and only Goodall Cup, the first state to win the championship after Victoria and New South Wales.

After two years back in Canada in the late 70s, Trudeau returned to Queensland and coached the state team for two more years in the early 80s. More recently, he played for the Sydney Silver Foxes in the over-55s division of the 2012 Australian Masters Ice Hockey Tournament at Penrith, NSW. The Foxes competed against the Melbourne Nite Owls and the Canberra Senators, winning the championship without losing a match. He contributed half his team’s goals (7 goals) plus 2 assists. In 2016, he was the National Champion of the Oldtimers Over-55 League at age 70. Married (Rita) with a married daughter (Andrea), he is now retired and lives at Maleny, Queensland.

In 2021, Trudeau still scores regularly in the GSHL at 75. League president Graham Perlin, who has played with him the past 18 years, says Russ "drives the 1.5 hours every Thursday from Maleny to Boondall to lace them up yet again".