Finding Frank: Full Circle in a Life Cut Short

When Frank Buncom wore uniform number 55 for the San Diego Chargers, he was the first of two superlative San Diego linebackers to wear that now famous numeral. Years later the team retired the jersey certainly not because of Buncom’s legacy or on-field exploits, but because it was worn by one Junior Seau. The author of Finding Frank: Full Circle in a Life Cut Short embarks on a journey that lasts over 40 years in a quest to define the quintessence and specialness of the former college All American at the University of Southern California and All Star professional football player. Buncom’s life and death was sandwiched and squeezed between a time in this country’s history that was cramped by enormous violence and strife; a time of breakthrough achievements and breathtaking losses. His realizations were met in a life that overcame extravagant odds; a life that never blinked or shied from unreachable goals or unspeakable wrongs. His time, his era, was an epoch before, a world apart from today’s society and today’s pace. Yet his lessons taught and learned those many years ago still can echo, still can enlighten, and still are valuable. That he was mostly viewed as a helmeted, nameless number was nevertheless unfortunate for the usually adoring public that too often fawns over professional athletes, actors and actresses, for all the wrong reasons. For those privileged to have spent time with him, who were mentored by him, he personified a determinedly driven life full of remarkable promise that was punitively cut short.