Walter Bruce (12 February 1938 — 28 November 2015) was a Northern Irish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played in the Irish League as an inside forward with

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

. He won two caps for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and eight inter-league caps for the Irish League. With Glentoran, he won the Irish League championship on four occasions in 1963–64, 1966–67, 1967–68 and 1969–70. He won one

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

(1965–66), two Gold Cups, three City Cups and one

Ulster Cup The Ulster Cup was an annual football competition held by the Irish Football League for senior clubs. History Beginning in 1949, it was held on fifty-one occasions until being suspended after the 1998/99 season and discontinued after a one-of ...

. He was named

Ulster Footballer of the Year The Ulster Footballer of the Year is the older of two association football player of the year awards in Northern Ireland. (The other is the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association award.) It is awarded by Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters ...

for the 1966–67 season. Bruce joined Glentoran as a sixteen-year-old in 1954, breaking into the first team towards the end of the 1955–56 season. In 1959, Bruce's 19 goals earned him the Glentoran Player of the Year title; and the following year he won his first cap in a 5–2 Home Nations Championship defeat by

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. In 1967, he captained Glentoran to the League title, also taking home City Cup, Gold Cup and Ulster Cup winner's medals, was crowned Ulster Footballer of the Year, and six-and-a-half years after first being capped, made the Northern Ireland team again for a 0–0

European Nations Cup European Nations Cup may refer to: *UEFA European Championship, formerly known as European Nations' Cup * Europcar Cup, a European Tour golf tournament * European Nations Cup (golf), a European Ladies Tour golf tournament * European Nations Cup (fi ...

qualifier with

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The only blip on the season was an Irish Cup final defeat, this time at the hands of

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. The summer of 1967 found the Glentoran squad travelling to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, playing for Detroit Cougars in the inaugural

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

season. The 1967–68 season brought Bruce another league title. Glentoran were eliminated from the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

by Benfica, losing on away goals after 1–1 home and 0–0 away results. Once again the 1968 summer months brought another trip to the US as Bruce, along with Glens teammate Barry Brown, re-signed for the Cougars then plying their trade in the new

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. From then on, Bruce's Irish League career began to slow down. He did claim another Irish League title in 1970 before retiring in 1971. His total of 529 appearances puts him third in the all-time Glentoran standings, and his 140 goals has only been bettered by ten others at the

Oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

. A fitter with STC throughout his playing days, Bruce later opened a newsagent's on the Holywood Road in Belfast and settled in Bangor,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. On 28 November 2015, Bruce died.

References

External links

Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Walter 1938 births 2015 deaths Ulster Footballers of the Year Glentoran F.C. players Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland men's international footballers NIFL Premiership players Detroit Cougars (soccer) players United Soccer Association players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Northern Ireland men's amateur international footballers Men's association football inside forwards Expatriate men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate sportspeople from Northern Ireland in the United States