Famous memories with Iowa: Lost to Iowa in first game game of renewed series in 1977 and then was fired by OSU shortly after Hartlieb to Cook 87.
RIP Earl Bruce
- Thread starter JRHawk2003
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If remember correctly he coached at UNI also. After his Ohio State stint.
No...It was actually Colorado State....then a short stint in the Arena League was his final job.
He also coached at Iowa State for a while. Great man..will be missed by Buckeye Nation.
Not only impressive but completely unheard of.
Dude seriously had to have had the ability to walk on water at that point.
Most successful run they've had besides maybe Danny Mac's time. I think the year,(1977) they went to the Peach bowl, they beat Nebraska, and almost beat Oklahoma. Davenport West alum Terry Rubley was the QB on those clone teams...
In Columbus we used to call him old 9-3 Earle. Ed Jennings, OSU president at the time, did not like Earle. Rick Bay, our AD, resigned in protest the same day Earle was fired. Despite his firing, Earle always loved OSU and was active in many OSU football functions after his retirement from coaching. Earle was the last link to the Woody Hayes' era at OSU. He will be missed.
A close friend shared his recruiting story back in the mid 70's on his visit to Ames, while riding in car with Earl driving, he noticed a huge Ohio State Rose bowl ring on one his right hand. He asked Earl what he thought was the better bowl, the Orange Bowl or Rose Bowl. He said Earl smiled and said "There's a reason why the call it the Grand Daddy of all Bowl Games". My buddy said it seamed obvious to him that Earl was a huge Big 10 Ohio State guy even as a Head Coach in the Big 8, he was plotting his way back. Rest in peace Coach Bruce!!!
Was it OJ Simpson, as a sideline reporter, that called him Bruce Earl?
RIP Earl.
Perhaps he had him confused with another former Iowa coach in Bruce Pearl?
I couldn’t remember the name of the really good running back Bruce had during his stint at ISU. Was Dexter Green. Ran for over 1,000 yards three straight seasons. Right before the Hawks had their first ever 1,000 yard rusher in Dennis Mosley.
He had some great players in Ames- many of whom were brought in by Johnny Majors. I remember the great duo's the best; Stanley/Hardeman at QB and the beastly Boskey and Stensrud brothers.
A lot of ISU fans never warmed up to Earle. Called him "old eight-and-three Earle." Hard to believe now. A lot of fans were glad when he went to OSU.
He sure as hell didn't leave the cupboard bare. He left a whole bunch of veterans from an 8-3 team, as well as the best freshman class ISU has had, before or since.
RIP, Earle.
He sure as hell didn't leave the cupboard bare. He left a whole bunch of veterans from an 8-3 team, as well as the best freshman class ISU has had, before or since.
RIP, Earle.
Looking at the press book....DBs were John Arnaud, Darren Longshore, Jeff Stallworth and Ronnie Osborne. Kicker was Alex Giffords. Defensive linemen included Joel Jenson, George Jesson, Shamus McDonough and James Ransom. Linebackers Clint Loy, Rodney Hutchins. Offensive linemen included Bruce Reimers, Karl Nelson, Ron Wagner, Ted Clapper, Jim Meyer and Chuck Meyer. WR were Lamar Summers, Jim Knuth. Running backs Dan Goodwin and Jerry Lorenzen - - also, Earle had recruited Dwayne Crutchfield and stashed him in JC.
I was thinking Chris Boskey was also in that class, but he was a sophomore.
There were a bunch of other good underclassmen, too - Besides, Boskey, there was Kenny Neil, John Less, Joe Brown, Larry Crwawford, Marc Butts, Cal Jacobs, Tom Roach, Vinny Cerrato, John Quinn, Rocky Gillis, Brian Neal, Tim Stonerook.....
One shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but Donnie Duncan did ISU no favors.
Bruce had some players and won a lot of games. I didn't know fans grumbled about his 8-3 records, it was a tough conference. Everybody thinks of Oklahoma and Nebraska in the 70s, but Missouri and Colorado had good teams too. The Kansas schools were the only gimmee wins.
I think if he had stayed at ISU as long as he was with the Buckeyes they would have found their way to an Orange Bowl. I understand him leaving, alma mater and all that, plus it was Ohio State. Still you have to wonder what could have been.
Duncan left after four seasons and resigned in the crucial period of recruiting, not long before signing day. Screwed his former employer and became AD at Oklahoma in what became a time of scandal. But Barry Switzer liked him.
RIP Coach Bruce, a good coach and good man from everything I've ever read or heard.
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Earle got off to a bad start at ISU. Inherited a lot of talent from Majors -- who everybody adored -- and played a much more conservative kind of football. Went 4-7 his first season, which wasn't as bad as it seemed. He played 6 Top 20 teams that year, plus unranked but good Arkansas team at Fayetteville. Three of the losses were by two points and another was by 7. After two more 4-7 seasons, he had to win or else. He won. I think -- and a lot of other fans agree -- that his next team, the '76 team, may have been ISU's best ever. Went 8-3, beat Nebraska, went to the final game with a chance to tie for the Big Eight title. Next two years also went 8-3.
I don't think he would have gone anywhere except Ohio State. He had really built a solid base for the program. It took the combined efforts of Donnie Duncan and Jim Criner to destroy it. I think if Earle had stayed, the team would have been pretty good every year and might well have won a title or two.
A bit of Cyclone trivia (I know it's the Hawkeye board, sorry): When Majors left for Pitt, the ISU athletics director had pretty much given the job to John Cooper, who was at Tulsa then. Cooper had been an ISU captain and was a member of the Dirty Thirty. But the ISU president overruled the AD and we got Duncan instead.
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