The passing of Olympic medalist Hugh Russell – and maybe the game he loved

Hugh Russell and I crossed paths at an Irish News Ulster GAA All-Stars celebration in an Armagh hotel a few years ago.
I was there as a guest of the Belfast paper for which I used cover Louth GAA affairs – Russell was taking photographs for the same source.

As luck – my luck – would have it, we were seated next to each other. And of course the conversation was about sport, mostly his.

I knew he was an Olympic medal-winner, but wouldn’t have been too familiar with his professional career.
He put me right on that, in, as you would expect from him, the most modest of ways.

I’d noticed that none of his pictures were appearing in the Irish News of late. Then I learnt why not. The pint-sized champion pugilist and first-class photographer had died after a short illness. He was 63.

“Little Red” fought mostly at flyweight. He won a Commonwealth title before claiming a bronze at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. This was Ireland’s first boxing medal since another Belfast man, Jim McCourt, won bronze at the 1964 Tokyo Games. He also won several Irish titles.

As a professional, Russell claimed a Lonsdale Belt after taking three British flyweight titles. One of his most memorable fights was his defeat of another Belfast scrapper, Davy Lamour.

Former Irish News sports editor, Thomas Hawkins – himself from a famous Belfast boxing family – told a good yarn in a tribute to his former works colleague. Having taken lumps out of each other, Russell and Larmour finished their fight with their faces looking like butcher’s blocks.

Both needed hospital attention to have the cuts and bruises repaired, and travelled together to Belfast’s Mater. They were placed in cubicles beside each other. The doctor first tended to Larmour. Straight away he wanted to know who had done so much damage to his face.

Larmour leaned over, pulled back the curtain and said, “He did!”
Many of the tributes paid to Russell said more about the gentleman he was than his prowess in the Ring.
Could it happen that the sport ‘Little Red” practiced is to be eliminated from the Olympic schedule? There are worrying reports that it, not next year – when the Games are set to go ahead in Paris – but in 2028, Los Angeles playing host for the third time.

The LA28 organising committee, in discussions with the International Olympic Committee, are proposing that five new sports be added to the programme – lacrosse, squash, and, wait for it, baseball/softball, cricket and flag football. The latter? No, I never heard of it either.

The sports that could be dropped are, along with boxing, weightlifting, modern pentathlon, and breaking (better known as break dancing). Breaking is getting two runs in Paris – its first and last, and no harm in that.

The omission of boxing would not be welcomed by this country. Eighteen of the country’s 35 Olympic medals have come in the Noble Art, and included are the golds won by Katie Taylor, in 2012, and Kellie Harrington, three years ago in Tokyo.
A Louth man took one of the others, Drogheda’s Tony ‘Socks’ Byrne winning bronze at the 1956 Melbourne Games. And if Amy Broadhurst wears the green jacket in Paris, the chances of the Wee County having another success would be heightened.
To finish, further background to flag football. It’s a five-on-five variation on American Football, but with no physical contact.
What next? Ella Bella, or maybe marbles. Baron de Courbetin must be...........you know the rest.