Arland Bruce III

Infobox NFL player
Name=Arland Bruce III
team=Toronto Argonauts


ImageWidth=200
Caption=Bruce III @ Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario.
status=Active
import=Yes
Position=WR / SB
number=5
College=Minnesota
DateOfBirth=birth date and age|1977|11|23
Birthplace= Olathe, Kansas
Height_ft=5
Height_in=10
Weight_lbs=191
NFLDraftedYear=2000
NFLDraftedRound=Undrafted
NFLDraftedPick=
CFLAllStar=2006
Awards=
Honors=
Records=
PFR=
DatabaseFootball=
NFL=BRU041517
CFL=194
CBS=
years=2000
2001-2002
2003
2004-"present"
teams=Kansas City Chiefs
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
San Francisco 49ers
Toronto Argonauts

Arland Richard Bruce, III (born November 23,1977 in Olathe, Kansas) is a Canadian football wide receiver for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League.

High School career

Bruce attended Olathe North High School in Olathe, Kansas and was a letterman in football. As a senior, he was a BlueChip Illustrated Top-100 pick, the Kansas State Player of the Year, and finished the year with 1,696 rushing yards. Bruce finished his stellar high school career with more than 3,000 rushing yards and 50 touchdowns.

Junior College career

Bruce then attended Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas. As a freshman, he was named a First-Team All American selection and rushed for over 1,000 yards. During his sophomore season, he ran for 997 yards and 10 TDs and was named a Second Team All American selection.

NCAA Division I-A career

Bruce played college football for the University of Minnesota. As a senior, he helped lead his team to an 8-3 record and a Sun Bowl berth.

Professional career

On April 19, 2000, Bruce was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs only to be cut by the team on August 31 of that same year.

On May 1, 2001, Bruce joined the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers where he got his first opportunity as a professional to receive significant playing time, playing in all 18 regular season games. In his rookie season, Bruce had 818 receiving yards with 7 touchdowns. His team went on to play in the Grey Cup championship, only to lose to the Calgary Stampeders.

In 2002, Bruce surpassed the 1000 yard receiving mark by amassing 1062 receiving yards with 12 touchdowns in 17 games.

In 2003, Bruce returned to the U.S. to try his luck once more with the NFL. On March 3 of that year, he signed with the San Francisco 49ers where he spent much of his playing time on special teams.

In 2004, after being released by the 49ers following their training camp, Bruce returned to the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts, signing with them on September 3, more than halfway through the CFL season and just shortly before their Labour Day Classic game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in which he played. For the remaining seven games in the regular season, Bruce had 247 receiving yards with just one touchdown. In addition to playing receiver, Bruce also served as one of two kick returners on the team alongside incumbent Bashir Levingston. In that role, Bruce returned two kick returns for touchdowns that season. In the East Division final, Bruce led all receivers with 12 receptions for 101 yards, and returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, helping the Argonauts advance to the Grey Cup championship that year. In the big game, the kick returning threat of both Bruce & Levingston induced the opposing B.C. Lions to punt the ball out of bounds for much of the game to neutralize the threat. In addition, Bruce was once again a go to receiver amassing 79 yards on 5 receptions. Bruce and the Argos went on to win the Grey Cup.

In 2005, Bruce established himself as the Argonauts top receiver with 1205 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. In that same year, Bruce was named an East division all-star marking the first time in his CFL career he had ever been named to an all-star team.

Trivia

* He was born to Yolanda Claudine Riddle Bruce and Arland Richard Bruce Jr.
* His cousin is NFL wide receiver Isaac Bruce
* Married to Linda Bruce.
* He and his wife own and operate a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. [http://www.canoe.ca/Argos/News/2006/08/17/1761958.html]

External links

* [http://www.arlandbruceiii.com ArlandBruceIII.com Official Website]
* [http://www.argonauts.ca/index.php/roster/show/id/194 Toronto Argonauts page]
* [http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/192368 NFL page]
* [http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=roster&func=display&ros_id=194 CFL.ca page]
* [http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=BRUCEARL01 DatabaseFootball.com stats]