John D Taylor, vice-chairman of the Wycombe Wanderers Ex-Players Association, has penned the following tribute to former Chairboy Ian Rundle, who passed away on Thursday:
Wycombe Wanderers are mourning the loss of another of their best-known former players with the death on Thursday 13th October 2011 of Ian Rundle. He failed to recover after heart surgery and died in hospital in Oxford aged 67.
An uncompromising defender, Ian joined Wycombe from Oxford City in 1965 and went on to make 357 senior appearances - putting him 22nd on the club's all-time list. Most of those were played alongside his life-long friend John Maskell who kept goal for the Blues 616 times in his 16-year Wanderers career.
The pair were star performers together on the field as Oxfordshire county youth team colleagues, with Oxford City and at Loakes Park, and were virtually inseparable off it down the decades. Ian was also John's assistant at Oxford City in the early 80s before going on to manage the club himself for three years.
Maskell said: "We were buddies for 52 years and in all that time I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. Tony Horseman described us as the "Gruesome Twosome". I was the vocal one and he was the silent partner but we worked well together both on and off the field and I will miss him terribly. Nobody could have wished for a better friend - a true gentleman."
When the Wanderers' Ex-Players Association was formed nearly three years ago, both became important founding members and travelled together from their Oxford homes for every meeting and every function.
"A hard man on the field as many forwards will testify, he was a quiet operator off it," says WWEPA Vice-Chairman John D Taylor. "But when he spoke we listened. His role in helping us get this organisation up and running cannot be under-estimated."
Brian Lee, who managed Rundle for the most successful part of his career when the Blues were carrying all before them in the early 1970s, said: "Very, very sad news about a good guy. He was a pleasure to know and a delight to manage."
Tony Horseman, who played alongside Ian for all of his nine years at Wycombe, described Rundle as the most laid back character he'd come across in football. "He was a rugged and determined character on the field but an absolute gentleman off it."
Ian leaves behind Sue, two sons Mark and Paul and a grandson and granddaughter. His death follows only weeks after the passing of another Wycombe legend, 1957 FA Amateur Cup Final scorer Frank Smith.
