Gil Bruce

Gilbert Alan "Gil" Bruce was born on March 9, 1959, to Guy and Billiejean Bruce. Guy was an outstanding player at Auburn from 1949-1952 and a member of Coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan's first team. He also officiated football games in north Alabama from 1958 to 1970. Gil has an older brother, Buddy, who was lso an outstanding football player for the Albertville Aggies. Gil began his athletic career playing Little League Baseball, youth basketball, and junior high football and basketball. He was an all-tournament selection on the 1972 12U team that won the Southeastern Basketball Championship in Rossville, Georgia, coached by Earl Hedgepeth. In 1973-74, his junior high football team was undefeated while the basketball team was 27-2, won county and regional championships, and was runner-up in the sub-state. In high school, Gil earned nine varsity letters for the Aggies in football, basketball, baseball, track, and golf. In the spring of 1974, legendary Hall of Fame Coach Vernon Wells decided to scrap the "I" formation for the split-back, triple option veer offense. Coach Wells believed that sophomore quarterback Gil Bruce would be just the right person to run that offense. In 1974, the offense that included several sophomores did not have a winning season, but the team showed a lot of promise with the new offense. In 1975, the Aggies, wearing "tear-away" jerseys, finished 8-2 and were County Champions. The Aggies dominated Gadsden, Emma Sansom and Etowah that season, beating them by a combined score of 98-6. According to Coach Butch Ferguson, "We ran a true triple option which became very effective as Gil learned to read the defenses and call audibles at the line." Gil was selected as the All-County QB. Two of his teammates have also been selected into the MCSHOF: Paul Teague, who played at Livingston State University, and Hamp Moore, who played at the University of North Alabama. Following that year, in order to strengthen a foot that he had broken prior to the season and to develop more speed and quickness, Bruce decided to run track and was a member of the county championship track team, running on the 440-yard relay team along with MCSHOF member Rod Rudolph.

In Gil's senior year, the 1976 Aggies finished with a 7-2-1 record, were ranked in the Top 10 of Class 4A for six weeks, reaching as high as No. 2, and became the only Aggie team in the past 52 years to have back-to-back winning seasons. The Aggies were Birmingham Post-Herald Team of the Week after beating Talladega 23-3 and Bruce was selected as the Post-Herald State Player-of-the-Week after gaining 218 yards rushing on 19 carries. He was also All-County, Marshall County Offensive MVP, and All-Region. In his last two years as a starter, Gil led the Aggies to a 15-4-1 record and two Marshall County Championships. His all-time statistics included 3,442 yards of total offense, a 37-yard punting average, and 29 total touchdowns. Gil, a two-year starter for Hall of Fame Coach Shannon Sloan, was also an outstanding basketball player. In 1977, he averaged 11 points per game and was selected All-County. The Aggies were County Champions and compiled a 21-7 record, only the third Albertville team to post a 20-win season at that time. Gil's strongest sport proved to be baseball. The two-year starter for Aggie baseball coach Mickey Moore was considered the number one hitting prospect in Alabama by the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, batting for a .440 average with nine HRs in 1977. The Aggies were County Champs that year and Gil was All-County. He was also selected to play in the Lions Club North-South All-Star game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham and the East-West All-Star Game in Huntsville. He hit two homers in the East-West game and was chosen MVP. After considering offers to play football or baseball at several colleges, Gil chose to play baseball at Jacksonville State University for legendary Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Coach Rudy Abbott, the winningest coach in Alabama history with 1,007 wins. Gil's career at JSU was phenomenal, starting every game of his four-year career. Of Bruce, Coach Abbott said, "Gil had the ability to hit college pitching from day one and his bat and leadership almost allowed us to pull off the impossible in 1979. With Bruce leading the way, we won the first 28 games of that year to set a new national record and advanced to the NCAA World Series after winning the regionals. The Gamecocks beat Auburn, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and UAB during the run and ended the year with a 43-7 record, best in America." In the College World Series, Gil batted for a .500 average, hit two HRs, had 5 RBIs, and hit safely in every game in the series. As a senior in 1981, Gil had another banner year with a .359 average, 45 RBIs, and 10 HRs. Gil finished his career with JSU's third highest number of RBIs (106), fourth highest batting average (.339), and fourth in total HRs (27). Those teams averaged winning 33 games per year for a combined total of 123 wins during his career. Recently, Gil was honored to be chosen to "Coach Abbott's All-Time Team." In 1979, Gil's Albertville team, coached by J.C. Bryant, won the National Baseball Congress semi-pro State Championship. The State title earned that team the right to play in the 1979 NBC World Series in Wichita, Kansas. Gil was offered a free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but decided to finish school and graduate from JSU in 1982. Gil is married to the former Sherrie Jo Grisham of Carrolton, Georgia. The Bruces have two children, Kellie and John, an Aggie football player from 2009-11. Gil has served on the Albertville Recreation Board, the Albertville City Board of Education and the Marshall County Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors, and he has done the sideline color for Aggie football radio broadcasts for seven years. Gil was chairman of the 100th anniversary Aggie football event in 2007. Gil and Sherrie currently reside in Albertville and have been active in the Alabama Autism Society for the past several years.