De Bruyn was a Free State Rugby player. He is most famous for loosing his glass eye when Lions lock Gordon Brown from Scotland landed a haymaker on him after they had a bit of a disagreement in the 1974 tour of South Africa. Apparently all 30 players dropped to their knees in a frantic search for the eye. Some bloke found it with a cry of "Eureka", gave it back to De Bruyn who promptly shoved it back into the socket and continued playing.