Chadron State College Athletics

Bruer is arguably the most outstanding athlete ever to come from Crawford. He lettered in football, basketball and track and field all three years he attended Chadron State. He was an all-conference selection at least twice in both football and basketball and received All-American recognition in both sports before graduating in 1942.
His football exploits included catching a touchdown pass and then throwing a 43-yard end-around pass that set up the Eagles’ other TD during a 12-9 win over the Wyoming Cowboys in 1940. That same season he threw another end around pass for the game’s only touchdown in a 6-0 win over Wayne State.
The Eagles were 48-11 during his three years as a post player for the basketball teams. He led the team in scoring in 1940-41 at 14.2 points a game and again in 1941-42, when he averaged 12.7 points. The Eagles won the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and represented the state at the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City his senior year.
Bruer also won the shot and the discus at the conference track meet in 1941.
After the war, he was a coach, principal and superintendent of schools in Montana for about 10 years before spending eight years at Western Montana College in Dillon and 18 years as dean of students and then as a professor and division chairman at Columbia Basin College at Pasco, Wash.