Mike Jordan
Fast facts:
Born: 1937, Sherburn Village, County Durham
Lived: Durham
Position: Defence
Joined Wasps: 1952
Last played: 1967
Other teams played for:
Whitley Bees (1959-1961)
Altrincham Aces (1961-1963)
International Honours:
England, Great Britain
Michael ‘Mike’ Jordan, like many in County Durham was born into a coal-mining family, on 14 December 1937 in Sherburn Village. With his older brother Bill Jordan - part of the Wasps’ ‘backroom staff’, Mike first started skating at the age of 12 in 1950 and took up the game of hockey immediately, quickly joining the Wasps’ junior team - Durham Hornets.
At the remarkably young age of 14, he made his Wasps’ debut, netting his first ‘senior’ goal seven minutes into the third period in a 14-6 annihilation of Streatham Royals on March 29, 1952 and appeared in a Wasps’ jersey a further six times that season playing in defence. Coach Bill Booth had initially been reluctant to include Jordan into the Wasps’ over concerns around his ‘slight build’ however the performances he put in on the ice soon quashed any worries.
Having progressed to Johnson Technical College in Durham, Jordan juggled study and hockey but by 1954/55 the promising young star racked up a 10 point tally (including three goals) over 24 games that season.
At this time many British young players aged 17-21, including many at Durham, like team-mate Norman Young were forced to ‘shelve’ their hockey careers and enter two years of mandatory National Service in the British armed forces, however after being turned down on medical grounds, Mike was able to continue playing the game uninterrupted.
In spring 1955, now a permanent player in the Wasps’ line-up, the just-turned-17-year-old apprentice draughtsman was selected to play for England in a friendly game held at Southampton against the United States on February 1. His selection made him the youngest player to wear an England shirt in international competition at that time. Described by the Sunderland Echo as ‘a modest lad’, Mike said of his selection:
“Naturally I am excited about being chosen, I only hope I have a good game.”
England were beaten 8-2 on the day, but by a USA side that would go on to finish fourth in the World Championship that year. Nevertheless, the young 6-foot defender was hailed as “one of the season’s ‘finds’ and the most promising of the English defencemen”, including Wembley Lions’ legendary Roy Shepherd.
At the close of the 1954/55 season, ice hockey at Durham came to an abrupt halt, after falling attendances at the city rink and the closure of many rinks around the country made the prospect of icing a team financially unviable.
The timing of the collapse of the sport was terrible - Whitley Bay, Durham’s ‘sister rink’ was nearing completion, and would open later that summer. The Smith family’s new rink however, would provide a lifeline to North East ice hockey.
And so, after a one-season hiatus, the Wasps - with Mike - would be back, but at the new slightly bigger, slightly grander Whitley Bay rink after the decision was made to revive the disbanded team and use them to introduce ice hockey to a whole new fanbase. The idea paid off. Attendance figures got back into the 1,000’s and ‘The Wasps’ as they were simply known as carried off the Amateur Tournament and B.I.H.A. Cup at the end of that season for the first time since 1953.
After a one year hiatus of no-hockey between 1956 and and ‘57 due to the Durham team disbanding, they were resurrected for the 57/58 season, but relocated to the newly opened Whitley Bay ice rink as “The Wasps”.
The success of that first season at Whitley Bay led to the creation of the rink’s own team in 1957. The Wasps returned to Durham, and the Bees took to the ice at the Bay - setting up a Durham - Whitley rivalry that would continue for decades.
Mike continued to play for Durham until the end of the 57/58 season, but made a switch to the Seaside club later that year.
By this point, Mike was no-longer the ‘slight-built’ teenager that debuted in Durham five years or so ago, and wasn’t afraid to get into a scrap - particularly when facing his own previous team. In the local ‘Evening News’ the Whitley Bay correspondent described particularly bloody battle between Wasps and Bees in January 1959 when fisticuffs broke out halfway through the second period:
“Mike Jordan and Hep Tindale decided they didn’t like each other so they had it out on the ice. Jordan received a five minute misconduct and Tindale a mangled eye.”
Whitley Bees and Mike Jordan wold go on to wrestle the BIHA Cup away from Durham that season, and again the season after.
Mike was once again selected for England in a game vs Scotland in a three game series at Southampton, Durham and Whitley Bay, scoring one of England’s 10 goals in a 10-1 drubbing of the Scotsmen at Hillheads. Bees’ Bobby Green, and Dave Lammin along with Wasps’ Metcalfe, Tindale and Dobson also appeared in the England line-up.
He would continue to play in Bees’ colours until the end of the 1960/61 season, when once again hockey hit a crisis point, and the game was axed at both of the North East rinks.
With no local team to play for, Mike spent one and a half seasons in Cheshire, playing for the Altrincham Aces at their recently-opened Devonshire Road rink, alongside a number of other north-eastern exiles including Durham goalie Derek Metcalfe. Jordan helped Aces top their own tournament, winning all 11 matches plus the play-off, and the Southern Cup at Southampton.
Mike would gain another England cap while playing at Altrincham that winter, however hockey there was also suspended in 1962, and so Jordan re-joined his Durham ex-team mates who were eking out an existence playing away-games only under the banner of ‘Durham Bees’.
The Wasps of 1963 - Mike Jordan is on the front row, third from the left wearing the captain’s shirt.
1963/64 season saw the ‘Bees’ revert back to ‘The Wasps’, once again, with home games games played at the Hillheads Road rink in Whitley Bay. Mike Jordan - now the Wasps’ captain.
Confusingly however, the team would continue to play a number of invitation tournaments under the Durham Bees name. October 1963 saw the Bees venture south to Wembley and the Sussex coast – where Mike Bees’ second goal in their surprise 3-2 victory over Brighton Tigers to win the Cobley Cup.
The Wasps (of Whitley-residency) would go on to with the BIHA cup for the final time in April 1964, defeating 7-0 Perth Blackhawks in the final, Jordan setting up line-mates Tindale and Emmonds for two goals to lead the team to victory.
Mike was picked to represent Great Britain for the first time in October 1964 to represent his country against France in two games at Wembley and in Paris.
The ‘Whitley Wasps’ tenure at Hillheads however would come to a dramatic towards the end of the 1964-65 season when, after a financial dispute with the Whitley Bay rink management, the team refused to play any further matches and were effectively banned from both Whitley and Durham Rinks.
Despite the dramas in the north-east, just a week later, Mike was again pulling on a Great Britain uniform in a selection trail-game at Ayr where GB won 3-1 over ‘The Rest’ in front of BBC Grandstand TV cameras. Mike would go on to represent Team GB again in Finland that March along with Derek Metcalfe, Terry Matthews and Hep Tindale from the Wasps.
Mike Jordan (3rd from right) in action for Great Britain
Homeless once again, but hopeful, Mike and the Wasps continued to play games around the country, despite being unable to train or skate at either Durham or Whitley Bay.
By April 1966, with hockey in Durham being represented by the Hornets, and the Warriors taking over the baton at Whitley, ‘The Wasps’ bit the bullet and disbanded. Mike hung his skates up in 1967, retiring from his prolific 15-year hockey career at the age of 30.
Michael Jordan passed away at a hospice in Sunderland in December 2011 after a long illness - three days before his 74th birthday.
