Earle Bruce

Bio

When an injury ended Earle Bruce's playing career at Ohio State, coach Woody Hayes urged Bruce to become a coach. Starting in the high school ranks, Bruce posted a 82-12-3 record in ten seasons and earning Ohio High School Coach of the Year honors three times. Earle's first collegiate job was at Tampa where in one season he had a 10-2 record and a Tangerine Bowl win. He then went to Iowa State, where he turned around a perpetually losing program into a winner and bowl invitee. In 1979, Bruce went to Ohio State succeeding Woody Hayes. In his first year, he posted an undefeated regular season, a Big Ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl. Bruce was named National Coach of the Year by both the Football Writers and Coaches Associations. In his nine seasons at OSU, Bruce won or shared four Big Ten championships, took the Buckeyes to eight bowl games, finished in the top-20 eight times and posted an 81-26-1 record. From there, he spent one season at Northern Iowa before closing his career at Colorado State, where he took the Rams to their first bowl game in 42 years. Overall Bruce had a 154-90-2 record, took four different schools to bowl games, where he had a 12-5 record, had ten seasons where his teams won nine or more games, and had nine top-20 teams.