Bruce Polen (born October 22, 1951) is 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 ...

player and coach. He was the tenth head football coach at

Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University (Pitt State or PSU) is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas. It enrolls approximately 7,400 students (6,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students) and is a member of the Kansas Board of Regents. History P ...

Pittsburg, Kansas Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, Kansas, United States, located in southeast Kansas near the Missouri state border. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

, serving for two seasons, from 1982 until 1983, compiling a record of 13–6.

Playing career

Polen was born in Dennison, Ohio, but later moved to Lee's Summit, Missouri. He played football at and graduated from Lee's Summit High School in 1969. He was not heavily recruited out of high school and attended William Penn College in

Oskaloosa, Iowa Oskaloosa is a city in, and the county seat of, Mahaska County, Iowa, United States. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Oskaloosa was a national center of bituminous coal mining. The population was 11,558 in the 2020 U.S. Cens ...

. Polen was a four-year starter at

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

on the football under head coach

Ron Randleman Ron Randleman (born December 17, 1941) is a former American football coach. He served as head coach at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas from 1982 to 2004. Randleman retired after the 2004 season as the winningest head coach in th ...

, and also played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and ran

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

. He was selected by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

as a first-team defensive back on the

1972 Little All-America college football team The 1972 Little All-America college football team, also known as the College Division All-America football team, is composed of college football players from small colleges and universities who were selected by the Associated Press (AP) as the best ...

. The

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

selected Polen in the fourteenth round of the 1973 NFL Draft, but cut him prior to the start of the season. The

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

signed him the following year, but he suffered an injury to his left knee during spring camp. Polen underwent two surgeries, in 1974 and 1975, but the Chiefs cut him afterwards when he failed a physical. In 1978 successfully sued the

Research Medical Center Research Medical Center is a 590-bed hospital located in Kansas City, Missouri at 2316 East Meyer Boulevard. It is part of the HCA Midwest Division. Background German Hospital was originally established in 1886 in a brick farmhouse near present ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, for botching the post-surgery physical therapy on his knee and ending his playing career.

Coaching career

His playing career over, Polen turned to coaching. Randleman, his head coach at William Penn, was the incoming head coach at

. Pittsburg competed in the

Central States Intercollegiate Conference The Central States Intercollegiate Conference (CSIC) was an American intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1976 to 1989. It was known to be one of the toughest NAIA c ...

(CSIC), part of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA). Randleman hired him as his

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

, a role he filled from 1976 to 1981. The 1981 team went 10–2 and lost the NAIA Division I Championship. Randleman departed after the season to become head coach at

Sam Houston State University Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

, then in the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

Lone Star Conference. Polen was to be Randleman's defensive coordinator at Sam Houston, but after a week returned to Pittsburg State and took over as head coach. Polen was head coach from 1982 to 1983. Over those two years he compiled a 13–6 record and won a conference title. Pittsburg State did not renew Polen's contract for the 1984 season.

Offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

Mike Mayerske Michael Richard Mayerske (September 24, 1942 – October 28, 2022) was an American football coach. He was the 11th head football coach at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, serving as interim head co ...

took over as interim head coach; Dennis Franchione was hired as a permanent replacement in 1985.

After coaching

Polen did not return to coaching and went into business, remaining in the Pittsburg area. He and Randleman, who retired from Sam Houston State in 2004 after 23 seasons, have remained close friends. Polen was inducted into William Penn's athletic hall of fame in 1990 and the

hall of fame in 2020. In addition to his business activities, Polen has done some coaching at Parsons Senior High School in

Parsons, Kansas Parsons is a city in Labette County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 9,600. It is the most populous city of Labette County, and the second-most populous city in the southeastern region of Kansas. ...

, down the road from Pittsburg.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polen, Bruce 1951 births Living people American football defensive backs Kansas City Chiefs players Oakland Raiders players Pittsburg State Gorillas football coaches William Penn Statesmen football players People from Dennison, Ohio People from Lee's Summit, Missouri Coaches of American football from Missouri Players of American football from Missouri Lee's Summit High School alumni