The video, showing a clip from a 1983 match between Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC Bayern Munich, and titled The Greatest Goal Never Scored, showed Bruns collecting the ball under pressure near his own corner flag, beating three Bayern Munich players as he ran almost the entire length of the pitch, exchanging a pass with a Borussia Mönchengladbach striker that allowed him on goal, only for his shot to hit the inside of one post, roll across goal and hit the other post, before rebounding into the arms of the Munich keeper.
In 1979, he was in the squad of the team Borussia Mönchengladbach, the UEFA Cup winner, and scored on the way to the final matches against Red Star Belgrade, in which he did not participate, one goal against Benfica and Manchester City.
In 1980 he was DFB Cup winner with Fortuna Düsseldorf, 1984 he lost with Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final of the same competition to FC Bayern Munich on penalties.
From 2006 he was coach of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and led the club in 2007 as the champion of the Oberliga Nordrhein back to the Regionalliga and in the successor season 2008 in the 2nd Bundesliga.
After Luginger had due to a persistent negative series on 1 February 2010 made his post available, Bruns jumped in as interim coach.
After a half year break, he took over again in April 2013, the coaching post at the SSVg Velbert, but had to give it back in November 2013 due to the athletic descent of the club again.
In April 2014, the Oberhausen country league DJK Arminia Klosterhardt announced that he had committed Bruns as head coach for the new 2014–15 season.