Bruce Bosley

Bruce Lee Bosley (November 5, 1933 – April 26, 1995) was an American professional football player who was a guard and center for 14 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected to four Pro Bowls (1960, 1965–1967), and was named All-Pro four times (1959–1961, 1966). He played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers (WVU). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

Early life Bosley was born on November 5, 1933, in Fresno, California. He attended Green Bank High School in Green Bank, West Virginia (1948-52). Bosley was a third-team Class B All-State fullback at Green Bank High School, and played in the North-South High School All-Star game. He was recruited to WVU to play football for the Mountaineers by head coach Art "Pappy" Lewis, who first saw Bosley playing high school basketball. He played in the 1954 Sugar Bowl, a 42–19 loss to Georgia Tech.

He went on to earn consensus All-America honors as a senior in 1955, only the second WVU player to do so at the time. In 1955, he was also selected captain of the All-Southern Conference team. One of his teammates during those years was fellow two-way lineman and future College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Sam Huff. In 1955, he was a WVU team captain, along with Huff and Fred Wyant.

Bosley also was an Academic All-American with a degree in chemical engineering. Bosley played his entire rookie season at defensive end.

By 1957, Bosley switched to offensive line and was the team's starting left guard, being named second team All-Pro in 1959 by the AP, and earning his first Pro Bowl berth in 1960. All-Pro guard Bosley started at center. and was honored two more times in 1966 and 1967. The NEA named him second team All-Pro in 1966. and a year with the Atlanta Falcons in 1969, starting in nine games before retiring. and on the same line with future hall of fame tackle Bob St. Clair.

Post-football

By 1967, Bosley was cultivating his other passion: restoring old homes. NFL Films visited his Hillsborough W.S. Crocker Estate carriage house for a show called “They Lead Two Lives,” which chronicled his career as both a star football player and respected home builder.

During the next 11 years he remodeled two other estates in Hillsborough as president of Interior Design, a home building, remodeling, interior decorating, furnishing and real-estate company.

Personal life Bosley became part-owner of a wholesale electrical supply house until his death from a heart attack on April 26, 1995. He was attending a United Way awards dinner, sitting at the head table with NFL hall of famer Jerry Rice whom Bosley had recruited as a host, when stricken.

Legacy Bosley is listed on the San Francisco 49ers “Golden Era” team from 1946 to 1969 and he was named to the college football's 75th Silver Anniversary Team in 1981.

In 1982, Bosley was inducted as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He was a part of West Virginia University's second Sports Hall of Fame induction class of 1992, and had his number 77 retired by the school in a pregame ceremony on September 3, 2016.

He was named the state of West Virginia's 30th greatest sports figure in a poll conducted by CNNSI.com.