Bronc Burnett

Bronc Burnett is the central character is a series of 27 football, baseball, and scouting novels set in Sonora, New Mexico for adolescent boys written by Wilfred McCormick between 1948 and 1967. The series was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons (#1-11), by David McKay (#12-23), and by Bobbs-Merrill (#24-27). 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."

And throughout the Bronc Burnett series, McCormick offered cogent theories, strategies, and tactics regarding the individual sports Bronc played. Whether it was playing first base, catcher, running the bases, or considering a triple option football offense, McCormick provided his young readers with insights they might never have experienced.