Bud Bruner

Edgar L. "Bud" Bruner (December 7, 1907 – February 21, 1996) was an American boxing manager, trainer, and gym proprietor from Louisville, Kentucky.

Career

Bruner was a star athlete at

In 1939, Bruner became athletic director at the United States Army post it Fort Knox. His responsibilities included setting up and supervising several boxing gyms, organizing and supervising numerous boxing shows and tournaments, and selecting and accompanying a Fort Knox representative team to the State Golden Gloves Tournament. Bruner also managed the baseball team and coached the basketball team.

Among the baseball players Bruner managed at Fort Knox were future Major Leaguers Stan Lopata, Joe Garagiola, Roy Sievers, and Early Wynn.

Bruner's basketball teams went up against Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats four times. Although they lost all four games, Bruner liked to joke that he "knew how to play Rupp" because UK didn't score more than 68 points in any of the games. After seven years in Fort Knox, Bruner resigned and returned to Louisville.

From 1951 to 1959, he served as matchmaker for the Louisville Golden Gloves Tournament. He was also the matchmaker for the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Boxing Trials and for William H. King Promotions.

Bruner opened the Headline Boxing Gym in 1952 and started managing and training boxers. He trained fourteen Kentucky State Golden Gloves Champions, eight of whom were named the best boxer of the tournament. His most notable boxers were welterweight contender

Bruner suffered a spinal cord injury when he fell down the stairs at his gym in 1985. The injury left him confined to a wheelchair, but he continued to manage and train boxers until the fall of 1994. Bruner died on February 21, 1996, at Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana.^[4]

Head coaching record

References