Bud Bruner

Who was Bud Bruner?

Edgar L. "Bud" Bruner was a boxing manager, trainer, and gym proprietor from Louisville, Kentucky.

Bruner was a star athlete at duPont Manual High School in Louisville. He lettered in baseball, basketball, football, and track. Bruner was inducted into the duPont Manual High School Alumni Association Hall of Fame in 2005.

His participation in boxing began in the 1930s while he was employed by the City of Louisville Recreation Department. He was responsible for playground tournaments, followed by district and city championships.

Bruner became athletic director at the Army Post in Fort Knox, Kentucky in 1939.

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 State Golden Gloves Tournaments.

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.