Bronc Burnett


Bronc Burnett is the central character in a series of 27 football, baseball, and scouting novels for adolescent boys set in Sonora, New Mexico, written by Wilfred McCormick between 1948 and 1967. The series was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, by David McKay, and by Bobbs-Merrill. Grosset & Dunlap reissued the entire series with some changes in the order of the books, and with both dust jackets and full-color cover illustrations. Some titles were included in Grosset & Dunlap's "Famous Sports Stories" Collection.
In 2001, Mark Mravic wondered if Bronc's "hokey wholesomeness" was relevant in the new millennium and commented, "Each installment of the Burnett series offers a morality play about sports and life—coping with criticism, for instance, or learning humility in the face of success. Was America ever so innocent, baseball ever so pure? Archetypes people Bronc's world: his loyal sidekick, catcher Fat Crompton; Cap'n Al, the gruff but lovable coach—"solid as a granite boulder"—who imparts the wisdom of his eight years in the big leagues; the insufferable Fibate Jones, team scorekeeper and resident gadfly. This is a world in which baseball-hungry townsfolk build the high school stands by hand; in which sheriff Pole Drinkwater works behind the plate, immune to the "yip-yaps" heckling him; in which the good guys are lanky, broad-shouldered, nimble-footed, and the villains sport names like Slug Langenegger and Sluice Derrick."

List of titles

  1. The Three-Two Pitch
  2. Legion Tourney
  3. Fielder's Choice
  4. Flying Tackle
  5. Bases Loaded
  6. Rambling Halfback
  7. Grand Slam Homer
  8. Quick Kick
  9. Eagle Scout
  10. The Big Ninth
  11. The Last Put Out
  12. One O'Clock Hitter
  13. Stranger In The Backfield
  14. The Bluffer
  15. Man In Motion
  16. Rebel With A Glove
  17. Too Late To Quit
  18. Once A Slugger
  19. Rough Stuff
  20. The Throwing Catcher
  21. The Pro Toughback
  22. The Right-End Option
  23. The Go-Ahead Runner
  24. Seven In Front
  25. Tall At The Plate
  26. No Place For Heroes
  27. The Incomplete Pitcher
  28. One Bounce Too Many