My one and only personal interaction with Bruns was extremely disappointing. I was an ISU student when he was, and observed the 300 lb. Bruns in a campus cafeteria standing over another, much smaller (5 ft. 6-ish) ISU student who was wearing an Iowa football t-shirt. Bruns got up from his table across the room, walked over and stood over the student yelling, cursing and demanding that he take the Iowa shirt off right then and there. He kept shouting "THAT OFFENDS ME! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO OFFEND ME!"
I wasn't much bigger than the small "offender" in the Hawkeye shirt, but the fact that he was embarrassing this kid in front of the whole cafeteria irked me, so I told Bruns to sit down and shut up. He turned his attention to me, came over and stood over me, swore up and down, threatened to kick my *** and kill me, etc. I was expecting him to pick me up and throw me through the wall I was sitting next to, but with every eye in the caf on us, I couldn't cower to the bully. So I repeated myself. His threats got louder and a little more disturbing, but at this point I began to sense his bluff, so I kept telling him to sit down and shut his mouth, that nobody cared, etc. At this point, others nearby were beginning to chime in at him too, and eventually he walked away dejected, back to the table he'd been sitting at with (I'm assuming) his girlfriend at the time and another girl or two.
Suffice it to say that I don't have a ton of respect for Ben Bruns or his opinions, however insightful they may be.
"My trips to Iowa City are typically filled with back-handed compliments and a lot of icy receptions. And of course there will be plenty of Hawk fans who are just dying to tell you badly their team will beat ours. Just smile, nod and tell them how good they are. We’ll see what happens Saturday." -Ben Bruns
