Dave Hyde: Faith, football and now the Broward Hall of Fame for Isaac Bruce

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Oct 15, 2025

Published in Football

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Faith. Family. Football. Fort Lauderdale. That’s the Isaac Bruce story, starting when he was still inside in his mother and she read the Bible to him daily.

Kairethiatic Bruce read to all 15 of her children like that before they were born. She then read from Proverbs each day as they readied for school.

That faith took root enough for several of them grew up to do ministry work, including the 13th of her children, named for Abraham and Sarah’s Old Testament son and blessed with speed unlike any other sibling.

Isaac always carried that faith and family with him as he rose in football. He read the Bible before each game. He followed a plant-based diet from the writings in Leviticus. He called siblings until reaching an older sister, Juliana Joseph, after tweaking a hamstring before the 1999 playoffs with the St. Louis Rams and said, “Let’s pray.”

It’s why now, at 52, when talking about being inducted into the Broward Hall of Fame with six others Thursday night, he says, “It’s a blessing, a great honor and blessing.”

His neighborhood at 29th Avenue and Fourth Street in Fort Lauderdale provided friends and football role models along his path. He met Frank Sanders, each 8, on a Holiday Park youth team and they became friends from Dillard High through their NFL careers.

He learned from Otis Gray, the successful Dillard coach, as they won the 1989 state title. He looked up to the 1980s Miami Hurricanes from Broward like Michael Irvin and the Blades brothers, Bennie and Brian.

He saw his daily path follow that of Lorenzo White, who preceded him at Dillard and played in the NFL.

“Every morning I’d come to school and see a picture of Lorenzo White,’’ he said. “I always had him right there as a role model, that example right before me on how it was done.”

Bruce became an example himself, playing 15 NFL seasons, retiring as the second-leading receiver in yardage in NFL history (he’s now fifth) and being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.

He was the big-play threat for the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” offense that went to two Super Bowls. His 73-yard reception with less than two minutes left were the winning points the in the Rams' 23-16 win over the Titans in Super Bowl 34.

But ask him for the biggest catch of his career and he says it was teammate Ricky Proehl’s catch in that NFC championship game. “That put us in the Super Bowl,’’ he said.

Behind it all, supporting it all, was his family. His father, Jesse, who had a roofing business, showed him how to work.

“Forty years, working every day,’’ his son said.

Isaac only worked on a roof a few times, but he didn’t need to go up there to be taught standards.

“He said if his name was going on it, it had to be perfect,’’ Bruce sad.

His older brother, Samuel, took over the roofing business. Isaac, upon retiring in 2015, returned to Fort Lauderdale with his wife and three children.

He started an ice cream store, Smooth, in Fort Lauderdale. He has a Bruce Zone gym. He continued his ministry.

And he has his family.

“We all look alike, the Bruces, the boys and the girls,’’ he said, chuckling.

Faith. Family. Fort Lauderdale. The Bruces always have been big on those. Isaac brought big-time football to the mix and, for that, he’ll be honored by the Broward Hall of Fame.

Here are the six inductees with Bruce into the Broward Hall of Fame:

— Scot Shields, a Fort Lauderdale High pitcher whose 10-year major league career was highlighted by a 3.18 earned-run average and 46 wins primarily as a reliever. He became one of Broward’s first players in a World Series with the Anaheim Angels.

— Dan Kanell, who established an orthopedic practice and was head physician for the Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and spring-training physician for the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. Kanell also was instrumental in starting the Broward County School Board Sports Medical Program.

— Steve Strand, the St. Thomas Aquinas basketball coach for 22 seasons who won a state title, nine district titles and made four Final Four appearances with a career record of 394-186.

— Kathryn Sallade, a Fort Lauderdale High swimmer who had 85 to 90% hearing loss and set three world records and was the first female athlete to carry the American flag in 1969 at the Deaflympics.

— Isaac Diaz, a rodeo rider who grew up in Davie and became one of the elite Wranglers and Saddle Bronc riders in the world.

— Cardinal Gibbons Girls Volleyball from 1975-1979. Under the leadership of coach Louise Crocco, Cardinal Gibbons won five straight Class 4A state titles and had a record of 129-4.