Bruce Lee Bosley (November 5, 1933 – April 26, 1995) was a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

Guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

and

Center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

who played for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and the

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in a fourteen-year career in which he was selected to appear in 4

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

s (1960,65-67), and was named

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list th ...

4 times (1959–1961, 66).

Collegiate career

. Bosley was a third-team Class B all-state fullback at

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High School when he was offered a full scholarship to play for the Mountaineers. Bosley was an immediate starter and contributed to West Virginia going from 5–5 in 1951 to 7–2 in 1952. In 1954 after a dominating performance against

Penn State #Redirect 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 campu ...

, Bosley was named

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Player of the Week. He went on to earn consensus All-America honors as a senior in 1955. West Virginia won 31 of 38 games Bosley played in during his four seasons from 1952 to 1955. Bosley, also an Academic All-American with a degree in chemical engineering, was invited to play in the College Football All-Star Game, the North-South Game and the

Senior Bowl The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game played annually in late January or early February in Mobile, Alabama, which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those players who have completed their college eligibility. Pr ...

Professional career

The

made Bruce Bosley their second-round selection in the 1956 NFL Draft. Bosley played his entire rookie season at

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

. By 1957, Bosley switched to line and was the team's starting left guard, earning his first

berth in 1960. Two years later in 1962 when the team was searching for a center after an injury to starter

Frank Morze Frank Joseph Morze, Jr. (March 21, 1933 – May 28, 2006) was an American football center and tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns. Career A native of Gardner, Morze graduated from Gar ...

, all-pro guard Bosley started at center. Bosley was named to the Pro Bowl again in 1965 and was honored two more times in 1966 and 1967. Bosley spent another season with the 49ers in 1968 and a year with the

in 1969 before retiring.

Post-football

By 1967, Bosley was cultivating his other passion: restoring old homes. NFL Films visited his Hillsborough W.S. Crocker Estate carriage house for a show called “They Lead Two Lives,” which chronicled his career as both a star football player and respected home builder. During the next 11 years he remodeled two other estates in Hillsborough as president of Interior Design, a home building, remodeling, interior decorating, furnishing and real-estate company.

Personal life

Bosley became part-owner of a wholesale electrical supply house in addition to his home remodeling business and was also well known for his civic and charitable activities in San Francisco. Among his most prominent roles was membership on the board of directors for the San Francisco Annex for Cultural Arts, membership on the mayor's committee for the San Francisco Council for the Performing Arts, and a long-time volunteer role with both the San Francisco Film Festival and the San Francisco Ballet. Bosley also served a stint as the president of the NFL Alumni Association. He lived and thrived in San Francisco until his death from a heart attack on April 26, 1995. Despite spending nearly 40 years of his life in northern California, Bosley never forgot his West Virginia roots. “Things may change and your career may take you away in a different direction but there are things you never forget. I’ve never left my roots. They are in West Virginia,” Bosley told Charleston Daily Mail sports editor Bill Smith several years ago.

Legacy

Bosley is listed on the San Francisco 49ers “Golden Era” team from 1946 to 1969 and he was named to the college football's 75th Silver Anniversary Team in 1981. Bosley, a member of the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

, was a part of West Virginia University's second hall of fame induction class of 1992. West Virginia University has announced that they will retire his number, 77, in a pregame ceremony on September 3, 2016. More recently, he was named the state of West Virginia's 30th greatest sports figure in a poll conducted by CNNSI.com. Dave Beronio, sports editor of the Vallejo Independent Press, once wrote of Bosley: “As a newsman of more than 40 years, I have found very few ‘Bruce Bosleys,’ those willing to contribute and participate during and after their days as stars. It would be difficult for me to believe that I will see his equal again in our area.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosley, Bruce 1933 births 1995 deaths All-American college football players San Francisco 49ers players Atlanta Falcons players Western Conference Pro Bowl players West Virginia Mountaineers football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees