By John Turney 
As someone who has ancestors with names like "Vincenzo" and "Rocco," I love the name "Bruno" -- as in Bruno Banducci, an NFL and AAFC guard who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers from 1944 through 1954. But it's more than his name that I like.
Bruno Banducci was an elite player, too.
How do I know? Well, for openers, he was voted to the NFL's 1940s' all-decade team, and that matters. As Hall-of-Fame voter Rick Gosselin once wrote, "There are no more powerful words an NFL player can have on his Hall of Fame resume than 'first-team all-decade.' "
And Banducci had them.
In the mid-2010s, the Hall's official website listed its 1920s-2000s' all-decade squads with first-teams separated from the others. So, we know that Banducci and Hall-of-Famer Bill Willis were listed first, or before the other three guards on the 1940s' all-decade team.
Powerful indeed.
Even so, as a modern-era player and, later, senior candidate, he has never risen above the preliminary round, which is as puzzling as it is mistaken -- not only because it flies in the face of what Gosselin espouses but because he deserves more, much more, than that.
Born in Italy, Banducci's family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he became a high-school football star and All-Conference choice at Stanford University under legendary coach and Hall-of-Fame candidate Clark Shaughnessy.
Chosen in the sixth round of the 1943 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, Banducci didn't report right away, working instead for an oil company on the West Coast. Thus, the 5-foot-11, 216-pounder began his professional career in 1944, playing guard and linebacker in the era of two-way football. With the Eagles, he helped block for Hall-of-Famer Steve Van Buren on a team that was 14-4-2 over two seasons and ran the ball better than anyone.
In his two years there, the Eagles led the NFL in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and highest yards per rush. But that's not all. They also led it in stopping the run, with Banducci a quality linebacker on the Eagles' defense.
Nevertheless, the pull of home was strong. So, in 1946, Banducci jumped to the newly formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC) to join the San Francisco 49ers and reunite with former Stanford teammates like quarterback Frankie Albert and Norm Standlee.
Result? The narrative remained the same. Once again, a line that featured Banducci was extremely successful running the ball. From 1946-54, the 49ers ran the ball 4,577 times for 22,357 yards and a 4.9 yards per rush. They also ran for 207 touchdowns. All those marks are better than any pro football team during that time. Moreover, their rushing total is over 4,500 yards more than the next-best team, the Cleveland Browns.
So, it wasn't really close.
Banducci gained his fair share of accolades, earning consensus All-AAFC honors in 1946 and 1947. Then, after the 49ers joined the NFL in 1950, his name often appeared on All-Pro teams. He was named second-team All-Pro in 1951 and 1952 (first-team by N.Y. Daily News) and first-team All-Pro in 1953 and 1954, with the latter a consensus choice in what was his last NFL season. He was also a team captain his last five years with San Francisco.
Oddly, he and the 49ers couldn't agree on a contract in 1955, even though Banducci had perhaps his best pro season the year before. A dispute centered on who was responsible for letting the popular guard go -- 49ers' owner Tony Morabito or coach Red Strader, who led the 49ers to a losing record in Banducci's absence and was fired after one season. In any event, Bruno -- who wanted to stay with the 49ers -- was released and moved to the CFL to start his 12th pro football season as a 34-year-old guard.
One year later, he returned to San Francisco but, by his own admission, was physically unable to play. So he walked away from the game after 131 games, including 44 in the AAFC and nine in the CFL.
In his career, Banducci was a multi-year all-league standout, a starting lineman on multiple teams that were dominant running the ball. He was also an all-decade pick who played on winning teams in all but one of his pro football seasons and whom Hall-of-Fame end Dante Lavelli named as one of the top two guards he saw in his career.
In 1962, Banducci was chosen to the All-Time 49ers' team, and deservedly so. He blocked for three NFL rushing champions -- Van Buren in 1945 and Joe “The Jet” Perry in 1953 and 1954 -- and that's significant. Now that AAFC numbers are grouped with the NFL, it can be said that when each back retired he was the NFL's all-time leading rusher.
"The Rams thought so much of Banducci's blocking techniques," former San Francisco Examiner sports reporter Don Selby once wrote, "that they made ... film clips of (him) in action, using the movies to show their own guards how the job should be done. 'He's the best in the business, that's all,' said one Rams' ex-coach."
Maybe Bruno Banducci deserves a Gold Jacket; maybe he doesn't. All I know is that should be decided by voters after his case has been made, not before ... and that hasn't happened. But make no mistake: He belongs in the conversation, and not because I said so.
Because he earned it.
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