Former Wolves player Eddie Russell is mourned after death, aged 89

He was a late 1940s wing-half partner and occasional stand-in for Billy Wright, as well as playing for Middlesbrough, Leicester and Notts County. Lincolnshire-born Russell was signed at 18 in 1946 after previously playing in the town for St Chad’s.

He was in the shadow of the two Billys, Crook and Wright, for more than two years before being handed his first-team debut in a 3-1 First Division defeat at home to Arsenal a few weeks before Wolves played and won the 1949 FA Cup final against Leicester.

That opportunity came along in the absence of Crook, who he also replaced for the final three games of that exciting breakthrough season for the club – a trio of fixtures that were incredibly squeezed into the space of four days in early May after the Cup had been won on April 30.

His most fruitful season at Molineux was in 1950-51 when he made 17 senior appearances, including both games in the FA Cup quarter-final and both in the semi-final as Stan Cullis’s team overcame Sunderland then lost controversially to their north-east rivals, Newcastle.

Such was his impact in the two wing-half shirts that he earned a place on the ground-breaking end-of-season visit to South Africa, where he played in seven of the 12 tour games. His son David said: “He loved travelling and did so for the rest of his life, although he never went back to South Africa.”

“Going there was a formative experience and Dad was very keen that my brother, Paul, should also go to South Africa in the 1980s when, despite being from Leicester, he was named in the Great Britain surfing team for an event in Durban.”

Russell departed to captain Middlesbrough in 1952. He went on to serve Leicester from 1953 to 1958 and was an integral part of their title-winning Second Division side of 1953-54. He also played for Notts County in the 1958-59 season.

What is not clear from the Wolves history books is that South Africa wasn’t his only distant football destination. He was a team-mate of luminaries such as Stanley Matthews and Nat Lofthouse when travelling as part of the FA tour of Canada in 1950.

“Unlike with Wolves to South Africa, the squad sailed and crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool,” David added. “It was no doubt quite an adventure. I spent some time reading about this trip at the FA when they had their headquarters in Lancaster Gate and noted there were some very contrasting results including 17-0 against Saskatchewan.”

After retiring from the game in 1959, Russell lived in Leicester for around 30 years, working initially as a PE teacher, then developing a successful career in business as a sales representative and company director in the printing industry.

He subsequently returned to life in education as an English teacher and, since 1988, had enjoyed a long and largely healthy and happy retirement in Cornwall despite the loss of his wife of 40 years, Sheila, in 1999. He is survived by his three children and seven grandchildren.

Eddie visited Molineux on several occasions for former player events and attended Billy Wright’s funeral in the town in September, 1994. The funeral is at Glynn Valley Crematorium, Bodmin, Cornwall, on Monday, November 20 at 3.30pm.