Long before HBCU football stars left for Colorado University, Bruce Eugene was something out of an urban legend. The ex-Grambling State quarterback stood just six feet tall in shoes, but weighed over 260 pounds, boasting a laser-accurate arm and a penchant for employing it. In 2005, Eugene broke the single-season record for passing touchdowns in Division I (both FBS and FCS) college football, before Hawaii’s Colt Brennan surpassed him a year later, albeit with more games but stronger competition.
Reporters called him the “Round Mound of Touchdown,” a nod to Charles Barkley. His coach called him “Fat Back.” But he was as bright as he was big. After putting up video game numbers and setting all-time records, Eugene worked out for the NFL draft and registered a 41 on the Wonderlic, one of the highest scores all-time by any NFL prospect on the aptitude test often criticized for racial biases leading to disparately lower average scores by Black quarterbacks. Unfortunately, Twitter and Instagram weren’t around back in 2005.
“Oh, if I had social media back then—it was crazy—I wouldn’t be here right now today,” said Eugene. “What I was doing and the numbers I was putting up, nobody was doing what I was doing back then.”
But thankfully for aspiring gridiron stars across the five boroughs, he never went viral. Eugene bounced around the professional football world, starting with his hometown New Orleans Saints and finding his way to Canada on the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders and Germany on NFL Europe’s Berlin Thunder. It wasn’t the Jets or Giants that brought him to the “Big Apple,” but rather a woman—his daughter’s mother. But Eugene always knew coaching was in the cards for him and soon started working in New York City’s Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL), while also doubling as a substitute teacher for the DOE.
By 2015, he was the league’s first Black head coach to win a championship, leading Williamsburg’s Grand Street High School to a 28-26 victory over Eramus Hall under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium. But his meteoric rise came to a screeching halt thanks to an enrollment scandal and internal politics—after winning the big game, Eugene soon found himself out of a job.
He says the issue stems from bitter conflict with the school’s principal. On paper, Eugene was let go for enrolling a Long Island-based player under his Brooklyn home address so he could play for Grand Street without paying a non-city resident fee. He listed the at-risk youngster as his nephew, hoping to whisk him away from his gang-heavy surroundings. It wasn’t too far from the truth. After all, for Black coaches like Eugene, play calling is just the first of many responsibilities.
“Are you wearing the many hats that we wear?” he said. “Black coaches, we have to be uncle, we have to be brother, we have to be daddy. We have to be whatever we need to be to reach them. The white coach, are you doing the same thing? Are you stepping into that role to try to reach them like we do? I don’t think many of them are doing that.
“Are you making sure [they] eat? Can they call you 24/7, 365? All that plays a part in our kids’ development. Football is a tool that we use. It gets to a point but you still need coaching—people that you can trust to help them matriculate through this thing called life.”
After leaving Grand Street, Eugene plied his coaching craft around the greater Tri-State area as an offensive coordinator. After all, the “Round Mound of Touchdown” was never an easy man to bring down. Recently, he resurfaced in New York City at Canarsie as an assistant coach. But the drama of 2015 continues to follow him and Eugene is now banned from the sidelines and forced to call plays from the stands. So why does he insist on coaching New York City youngsters despite all the obstacles? Eugene admits he’s strongly considered walking away many times. But he remains paying it forward, long past the end zone.
“I’ve helped so many kids in the city, not just kids that go to school and play something—I’ve helped the number of kids that other schools get to college,” said Eugene. “Because [of] my HBCU roots, I’ve helped a lot of kids get to the HBCUs. Because somebody helped me when I was coming up, my father wasn’t around.
“All of my coaches took a role in my life and helped me become the man I am today. So for me, that’s how I’m dealing with my kids.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/amnews1