Blue White Illustrated

J ohn Bruno may not be the greatest punter in Penn State football history but he is the most memorable for what he did on and off the field when the Nit- tany Lions won the 1986 national cham- pionship at the Fiesta Bowl. The saddest part of it all is that less than six years after he became a Penn State folk hero in Tempe, Ariz., Bruno died from complications of skin cancer. The saving grace of his unfortunate death at the age of 27 has been the cre- ation of a foundation in Bruno's honor that raises money to fight the deadly melanoma cancer that took his life. Since the establishment of the Foreman Foundation in 1996 by Bruno's Penn State friend Phillip Foreman, the western Pennsylvania organization has raised more than $1.2 million in partnership with Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. In his death, Bruno is now helping to save lives. That means more to the Bruno family than all the ac- colades young John received as a football player. "It's been remarkable what the Foreman Foundation has done in John's memory, 25 years after his death when we really knew nothing about melanoma," said his sister Cheryl Gamber in a recent tele- phone conversation. "The Melanoma Center at Hershey is an outgrowth of what the foundation launched to honor John, and they're now getting more refer- rals than any other melanoma facility in Pennsylvania. People are being treated and given the opportunity to live longer because of the research being done in his memory." Penn State's punters are often walk-ons who blossom into stars, and Bruno was one of those, earning a scholarship before his redshirt sophomore season of 1984 when he set two team season records that still stand: most punts (79) and most yardage (3,273). That sophomore-laden 1984 team, with only seven seniors in the starting lineup and three more on the two-deep depth chart, finished with the worst record (6-5) since Joe Paterno's debut in 1966. But the sophomores in 1984 were the backbone of the '85 and '86 teams that both played for the national championship. By 1986 Bruno was part of a close-knit group of 15 fifth-year seniors who had been true freshmen on Penn State's first national championship team in 1982 and learned what leadership is all about. In fact, in Bruno's redshirt freshman season of 1983, he was a wide receiver based on his experience at Upper St. Clair High in suburban Pittsburgh. Although he had punted in high school, he couldn't beat out senior George Reynolds in '83 and punted only for Penn State's junior varsity team. In the three seasons that followed, Bruno would emerge as a de- fensive standout with his punting. Penn State's career leaders are defined by their yards-per-punt averages, and Bruno's 41.7-yard average (204 kicks for 8,508 yards, with just one blocked) is still fifth in the team record books. Bruno's statistics certainly would be higher if not for his skill at placing punts strategically or where they could not be returned. His longest punt, a 71-yarder in a 16-12 victory over Boston College in 1985, is tied for sixth in the team records with one by Joe Colone (1942, 1946-48, who historians such as this writer believe is the Nittany Lions' greatest punter). That particular Bruno kick took Penn State out of a dilemma while holding a narrow 12-10 lead in the third quarter and led directly to the clinching touchdown by nose guard Mike Russo on a 21-yard interception. Penn State's 1986 media guide aptly de- scribes Bruno's expertise: "Not only was Bruno a consistent 40-yard punter, but the uncanny accuracy of his punch kicks time after time produced excellent field positon for the Lions. Five of his kicks [in 1985] were downed inside the 10 and an- other nine between the 10 and 20." "One thing about his punting was that he was extremely accurate," former assis- tant coach Tom Bradley told writer Michael Weinreb, then with The Daily Collegian, shortly after Bruno's death "He was never concerned with average." | A LEG TO STAND ON H I S T O R Y Through the work of the Foreman Foundation, John Bruno's legacy lives on CHERYL GAMBER JOHN BRUNO'S SISTER It's been remarkable what the Foreman Foundation has done in John's memory, 25 years after his death when we really knew nothing about melanoma." " JOHN BRUNO

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