His father was a World War II Navy veteran of the Pacific theater, former professional boxer, and longtime New Orleans police officer.
[3] After winning a citywide essay contest for eighth-grade students at Catholic elementary schools in New Orleans in 1961, Bernard was advised by his principal, a nun, that he had a gift for writing and should consider journalism as a career.
He graduated from De La Salle High School in 1965 and studied journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
The Courier won several statewide awards for sports coverage under his leadership before he went on to be on the sports staffs of the Miami Herald, Jackson (Mississippi) Daily News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and, for the last 28 years of his 43-year newspaper career, the Philadelphia Daily News, where his principal beats were boxing and Penn State football.
At various points he served as president of the Mississippi Sports Writers Association and Boxing Writers Association of America, and he made appearances in three boxing-themed movies: 2016’s “Rocky Balboa,” in which he had a speaking role and played himself, as well as 1999’s “Play It to the Bone” and 2011’s “Real Steel.”