Bruce Patrick Bannon (born March 11, 1951) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for two seasons during the early 1970s. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

and earned consensus All-American honors. The

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

selected him in the fifth round of the 1973 NFL Draft, and he played for the NFL's Miami Dolphins in 1973 and 1974. Bannon was born in Rockaway, New Jersey. He started playing football at 8 years old in the Morris County Midget Football League for the Rockaway Township Rockets as a quarterback. He played high school football at Morris Hills High School in Rockaway.databaseFootball.com, Players
Bruce Bannon
. Retrieved October 23, 2012. Bannon attended

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

where he played for coach Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions football team from 1969 to 1972. He was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American and the defensive

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

(MVP) of the 1972 Cotton Bowl Classic. He graduated from Penn State in 1973 with a bachelor of science degree in geology. Bannon was also named First-team All-America and selected to play in the Hula Bowl the following season. The Nittany Lions compiled a 28-6 record in his three seasons at Penn State, and the team twice received the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy as the best team in the Northeast. Bannon was a Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete with an NCAA Postgraduate scholarship. He was a 1972 Academic All American as well. Bannon had 223 tackles as a defensive end and was outstanding as a pass rusher. He resides in Pennsylvania. Reports of his death in early 2008 were erroneous, arising from the death of an individual with the same name.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bannon, Bruce 1951 births Living people All-American college football players American football linebackers Miami Dolphins players Penn State Nittany Lions football players Morris Hills High School alumni People from Rockaway, New Jersey Players of American football from Morris County, New Jersey