After playing college football as an end at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education in 1948, he was selected in the first round, 10th overall, of the 1948 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, but was sent to the Detroit Lions.

[3] Bumgardner started playing at Texas in 1942 under coach Dana X. Bible and helped the team win the Conference Championship and then the 1943 Cotton Bowl Classic.

At Texas, he was captain of the 1947 Football team that won the 1948 Sugar Bowl and a favorite target of Bobby Layne.

[3] He became marketing manager of a real estate firm in Bryan and in 1987, he retired to Pecan Plantation near Granbury, Texas.

He died of congestive heart failure on April 12, 2005, in Greenville and was buried in the family cemetery there.