Bruce Bosley, Consensus All-American in 1955, to be Third WVU Football Player to Have Number Retired
By Connect-Bridgeport Staff on August 17, 2016
Selected as the AP National Player of the Week following WVU's 19-14 upset of Penn State in 1954, Bosley was also a CoSIDA Academic All-American and played in the College All-Star Game, North-South Game and the Senior Bowl.
A second-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1956, he went on to become an immediate starter for the 49ers at defensive end and played all but two minutes of his first season at that spot. He moved to offensive guard and then to center in 1962, where he excelled and was a 49er team captain in 1967 and 1968. He finished his playing career with the Atlanta Falcons in 1969.
Bosley was named to the Sporting News Western Conference All-Star team as a guard in 1959, a distinction he earned again in 1961. He earned Pro Bowl status in 1961 as an offensive guard and again in 1966, 1967 and 1968 as a center.
Upon retirement, Bosley was well known in the San Francisco area for his charitable endeavors. He served on the board of directors for the San Francisco Annex for Cultural Arts, he was on the mayor's committee for the San Francisco Council for the Performing Arts, and was a long-serving volunteer with the San Francisco Film Festival and the San Francisco Ballet.
Bosley also went on to be the president of the NFL Alumni Association, and become a member of the 49ers "Golden Era" team from 1946-69. He was selected to college football's Silver Anniversary team in 1981, WVU’s all-time football team (1950-59), inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982, the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, and the newly formed Mountaineer Legends Society in 2016.