Sad news```````````

My Earle Bruce stories...

Earle was hired my junior year at Ohio State so my senior year was his first as Buckeye head coach. Ohio State was 11-0 in the Rose Bowl and lost to USC 18-17 on a late TD by Charles White. I think he ran like 10 times for 70 yards on the final drive. About a week after the game we were at a basketball game and saw Earle. I asked him to sign my program and my room mate said, 'sign it to my good friend Vince whose house I have dinner at when I'm in town.' Earle laughed and said, 'you want me to write all that, Vince?' I said no that's not necessary.

Flash forward over 30 years, November of 2011. Earle delivered the eulogy at Bud Meyer's (Urban's dad) funeral. I know I've mention several times that Urban's sister is married to my wife's brother. Chris Spielman was also there but it was actually a very small funeral.

Anyway, after the funeral I went up to Coach Bruce and told him I was an OSU alum and was actually a senior his first year as head coach. Earle's eyes got very intense and he said, "Boy that was a good team, a really good team! You were lucky you got to see them play. The best team I ever coached!" The intensity in his voice was incredible - he got so excited talking about them.

I think Earle was diagnosed with Alzheimers a few years ago. He was a good man and proud Buckeye. I also attended his final game as coach when the Bucks beat UM in Ann Arbor in 1987 - pretty cool to be there that day as the team, wearing Earle headbands, carried him off the field.