Bud Bruner

Edgar L. "Bud" Bruner (December 7, 1907 - February 21, 1996) was a boxing manager, trainer, and gym proprietor from Louisville, Kentucky.

Bruner was a star athlete at duPont Manual High School in Louisville. He lettered in baseball, basketball, football, and track. In 2005, he was inducted into the duPont Manual High School Alumni Association Hall Of Fame.

His participation in boxing began in the 1930s while he was employed by the City of Louisville Recreation Department. He was responsible for playground tournaments, district championships, and city championships.

Bruner became athletic director at the Army Post in Fort Knox, Kentucky in 1939.

His responsibilities included setting up and supervising several boxing gyms, organizing and supervising numerous boxing shows and tournaments, and selecting and accompanying a Fort Knox representative team to State Golden Gloves Tournaments.

Bruner also managed the baseball team and coached the basketball team.

Among the baseball players Bruner managed at Fort Knox were future Major Leaguers Stan Lopata, Joe Garagiola, Roy Sievers, and Early Wynn.

Bruner's basketball teams went up against Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats four times. Although they lost all four games, Bruner liked to joke that he "knew how to play Rupp" because UK didn't score more than 68 points in any of the games.

After seven years in Fort Knox, Bruner resigned and returned to Louisville.

He served as matchmaker for the Louisville Golden Gloves Tournament from 1952 to 1959. He was also matchmaker for the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Boxing Trials and for William H. King Promotions.

In 1952, Bruner opened the Headline Boxing Gym and started managing and training boxers. He trained fourteen Kentucky State Golden Gloves Champions, eight of whom were named the best boxer of the tournament.

His most notable boxers were welterweight contender Rudell Stitch, future WBA World Heavyweight Champion Jimmy Ellis, and Mayfield Pennington, who defeated former World Welterweight and Middleweight Champion Emile Griffith.

Muhammad Ali sometimes trained at Bruner's gym. When Ali turned professional, Bruner arranged for Tunney Hunsaker to be his first opponent. Bruner also worked Hunsaker's corner for the fight, which Ali won by decision.

In 1985, Bruner suffered a spinal cord injury when he fell down the stairs at his gym. The injury left him confined to a wheelchair, but he continued to manage and train boxers until the summer of 1994.