🐑 The Sheep
on the Bus: The Durham Wasps’ Funniest Road Trip Ever
By: Frankie Killen & Ken Abbott
🏒 The Sheep on the Bus — A Durham Wasps Legend
Every hockey team has a story that becomes folklore — one that gets told in bars, locker rooms, and reunion dinners for decades. For the Durham Wasps, that story isn’t about a championship or a fight.
It’s about The Sheep on the Bus.
The Setup: Bank Holiday Madness
Picture it: the August Bank Holiday weekend, nearly thirty years ago. The Wasps had just finished a pre-season friendly against the Cardiff Devils in Durham. Spirits were high, a few pints were flowing, and the talk turned to what to do with the rest of the weekend.
That’s when Ivor Bennett — never short of a wild idea — said,
Why don’t we go away for the weekend?
Someone asked where.
“Blackpool,” Ivor grinned.
There’s a beach, the tower, and a party waiting for us.
And just like that, the plan was set.
Mike Blaisdell, new to the team, was up for it. The Cooper brothers were in too. Instead of going home on the Cardiff bus, they piled in with us. A call later, and the Durham bus company (no relation to the Coopers on the ice) sent over a 25-seater coach.
We loaded it with a few cases of Heineken from the bar — and even the driver joined in on the fun. Different times!
The Midnight Sheep Incident
Around 1 a.m., we stopped in the middle of nowhere for a quick pit stop. As everyone stood by the roadside, Mike suddenly shouted,
My God, what’s that in the field?
“It’s a sheep,” someone replied.
“I’ve never seen one up close,” he said.
That was all it took.
Next thing you know, I was in the field — in the pitch dark — chasing down a sheep. Don’t ask how, but I actually caught it. Kicking, wriggling, and thoroughly unimpressed, I carried it back to the bus.
The place erupted. No one could breathe for laughing.
Mike sat there, eyes wide, saying,
I can’t believe you brought a sheep on the bus so I could see one!
Then came the realization that we probably shouldn’t be driving through the countryside with a live sheep on board. So we stopped, gently set it back in the field, and it bounded off into the night — unharmed but probably wondering what just happened.
Blackpool and Beyond
We did make it to Blackpool — though the hotel was the filthiest bed and breakfast you can imagine. We all slept in our clothes, drank through the next day, and eventually made our way back to Durham, laughing the whole way.
For months afterward, the “sheep incident” was all anyone talked about at the rink.
Whenever the team had a rough game, Mike would grin and say,
Come on, lads — it could be worse. We could be the sheep!
Even years later, he still tells the story. “At my NHL get-togethers,” he told me, “the guys just sit there, jaws dropped. They can’t believe it.”
A Legend Lives On
No trophy or stat line can beat a story like that. It’s pure, ridiculous, heartwarming hockey camaraderie — the kind of memory that bonds a team for life.
And that’s the thing about great teams. It’s not just about what happens on the ice — it’s about the moments in between, the ones that make you laugh until you cry.
For the Durham Wasps, that moment will always be remembered as The Sheep on the Bus.