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Earle Bruce
Sport	American football
Born	March 8, 1931
Place of birth	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Career Highlights
Coaching Stats
College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1951	Ohio State University
Position	Running Back
Coaching positions
1972 1973-1978 1979-1987 1988 1989-1992	University of Tampa Iowa State University Ohio State University University of Northern Iowa Colorado State University
College Football Hall of Fame, 2002

Earle Bruce (born March 8, 1931) is a former college football and arena football coach from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bruce played running back at The Ohio State University until 1951, when he suffered a torn meniscus, ending his football career. Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes asked Bruce to join the coaching staff, which he did until his graduation in 1953. He was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity while attending Ohio State University.

After several years of winning seasons at a number of Ohio high schools, Massillon High School hired Bruce as head coach, where his teams went undefeated in 1964 and 1965. Hayes hired Bruce as a position coach for the offensive line and later defensive backs.

After five seasons the University of Tampa brought Bruce on as head coach in 1972. During his first season, Tampa went 10-2, including a win in the Tangerine Bowl. Bruce moved into the head coaching position at Iowa State University following his success at Tampa. Iowa State experienced some success in six seasons with Bruce as head coach. (In 2000, Iowa State inducted Bruce into their school hall of fame, named the Louis Menze Hall of Fame.)

After Woody Hayes was fired from Ohio State, Bruce was offered that head coaching position. Bruce coached Ohio State from 1979-1987. In the first year, Ohio State went undefeated in the regular season and played in the Rose Bowl, losing the game and the national championship by a single point. In 1987, he was fired just prior to the last game of the season—against Michigan—but was allowed to finish out the year.

Bruce took over the head coaching position at the University of Northern Iowa for one year, and then finished his intercollegiate coaching career at Colorado State University before moving to the Arena Football League, where he coached the Cleveland Thunderbolts in 1994 and the St. Louis Stampede in 1995 and 1996 before retiring.

The College Football Hall of Fame inducted Bruce in 2002. His combined coaching college coaching record is 154-90-2. He led four different college teams to bowl games, where he had a 12-5 record.

In 2004, Bruce came out of retirement to return to become the head coach for the AFL's Destroyers, who were moving from Buffalo to Columbus that year. He retired to a front office position after coaching the Destroyers to a 6-10 record in 2004, and was replaced as head coach by Chris Spielman, who played for Bruce at Ohio State. Bruce finished with a 19-25 record over four seasons in the AFL.

Earle Bruce is happily married with four daughters.

• College Football Hall of Fame biography of Earle Bruce
• Ohio State University announcement of Hall of Fame induction
• Iowa State Louis Menze Hall of Fame

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