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Catching Up With . . .
Bruce Hardy, three-sport star
April 29, 1974
Posted: Tue May 26, 1998
While
wading through the sea of familiar faces at the 10th-year reunion
for Bingham High's class of '74, Bruce Hardy suddenly
realized why these exercises in mandated nostalgia are
usually so depressing. "People don't like reunions
because you see yourself in the
other people," says Hardy, who grew up in Utah's Salt
Lake Valley. "Your mind still likes to tell you that
you're 17, but your body is showing everyone that you are
much older."
The last thing Hardy, who resides in St. George, Utah, with
his wife, Joanie, and their four children, needs to worry
about is his public image in his home state. Hardy, who
wants to coach in the NFL, is paying his dues as offensive
coordinator for the
Arena Football
League's Arizona Rattlers, but many people in Salt Lake Valley
still idolize him as the high school phenom who racked up
all-state honors in three sports. He was a power-hitting
catcher one major league scout called "the best high
school athlete I've seen in
20 years" and Class AAA MVP in basketball and football
in both his junior and senior years.
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At 17 the
6'4",
205-pound
Hardy was on the cover of SI, which anointed him "the
best all-around schoolboy athlete in the U.S." The
local residents repaid Hardy's heroics with a devotion that
bordered on
lunacy.
"Someone once broke into my car and stole my letter
jacket," says Hardy, 42. "They
didn't bother with my tape deck or my date's purse."
This fanaticism drove him to leave Utah to play football at
Arizona State.
"I felt like I was carrying the town's
hopes on my shoulders," Hardy says. "People acted
like I was a traitor, but I had to get away." He
switched from quarterback to tight end as a sophomore, and
after catching 19 passes for 269 yards as a senior in 1977,
he was picked in the ninth round of
the NFL draft by Miami. In the ensuing 12 seasons with the
Dolphins he caught 256 passes for 2,455 yards and started
in two Super
Bowls.
Hardy has been coaching Arena
Football since 1994. "What I try to pass on to my players is
what I learned as a player: how to use your head. I didn't
have as much talent as other NFL players, but what I lacked
in speed, I made up for in technique. That
kept me playing as long as I did." He hopes his
football smarts will soon return him to the NFL as an
assistant. "I always figured I could be successful at
coaching," says Hardy, "and I do have Don Shula as a reference on
my résumé."
—by Richard
Deutsch
photographs by Scott Troyanos; Heinz Kluetmeier (cover)
Issue date: June 1, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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