Colorado State Names Bruce as Football Coach

Former Ohio State Coach Earle Bruce was named head football coach at Colorado State Friday.

Bruce, 57, had been considered CSU’s leading candidate the past week, but an agreement was stalled because of Bruce’s difficulty in getting a release from the final 3 years of his 4-year contract at Northern Iowa. Bruce resigned at Northern Iowa last Saturday.

Bruce was 5-6 at Northern Iowa, a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I-AA school. His $64,000-a-year contract contained an escape clause that allowed him to break his contract to take a job at one of five named schools--not including Colorado State. If Bruce wanted to go to any other school, he had to settle with Northern Iowa.

Bruce succeeds Leon Fuller, who had a 25-55 record in 7 seasons, including 1-11 and 1-10 marks the past 2 seasons. Fuller resigned under fire Nov. 28.