Shirt retirement

After a career which began at the end of the last century the Coventry Blaze and GB international forward Russell Cowley decide to call time on his career at the end of last season.

The Coventry Blaze organisation decided to honour him by retiring his No 17 shirt on the 19^th February in front of his old coach and various players past and present.

In total he played over 900 major league games, sixty-six of those at GB level at he top level.

Most of his games were for the Coventry Blaze but he did have a year with the Cardiff Devils: in all he amassed 837 games in the EIHL whilst scoring 427 points.

The then coach of Coventry Blaze, Paul Thompson, brought the young (18) Canadian to Coventry from Swindon whom he had begun playing for in 1999 after coming over from Canada.

He moved for a season to Cardiff, where he met his wife, to try something new as there was little scope at that time for progression.

However, the following year he was enticed back to Coventry and went on to complete a Masters degree at the university there.

With Coventry he achieved two league titles, two playoff titles and two cups, his greatest memory being from the 2004/05 season as he helped Coventry to a Grand Slam of trophiesinterview done by Ed Kimberley of Coventry Blaze.

Thanks to Ed Kimberley for the following interview with Russell.

Tweets by @eurohockey