Russ Ward joined the McGill University Redmen ice hockey team in 1930 and stayed through 1932, when he left to focus on his studies for his dentistry degree. During his tenure with the school he participated in two exhibition games that took place prior to the 1932 Winter Olympic hockey tournament. In the first, his McGill team shutout the official Canadian Olympic squad, and upcoming gold medalists, 2-0. In the second, they defeated the team from the United States, the eventual runners-up, 2-1. Among his teammates were Ken Farmer and Hugh Farquharson, both of whom would represent Canada at the 1936 Winter Games. Ward maintained a spot on the university’s golf team until his 1934 graduation and later played amateur basketball in Montreal, the city in which he lived, and practiced dentistry, until his death in 1973.