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Ol' Kentucky honors Bradley; what about Indiana?



This story ran on nwitimes.com on Wednesday, September 14, 2005 12:42 AM CDT

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al hamnik
times columnist

A very special honor will be bestowed Thursday in Louisville, Ky., on someone who, for once, doesn't wear a saddle.

You won't hear a word about it on the streets of East Chicago, which should be thumping its collective chest with pride. And it will go unnoticed throughout most of Indiana and Illinois, where the least said about checkered pasts, the better for its upstanding church folks.

Jim Bradley, the greatest basketball player this state ever produced, is an enigma to them.

And that's as tragic, as unfair, as the circumstances surrounding his death.

Bradley, who was Northern Illinois University's Player of the Century in 2000-01, will be inducted posthumously into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the 1974-75 American Basketball Association Kentucky Colonels. You may remember some of his teammates: Artis Gilmore, Wil Jones, Louie Dampier, Dan Issel, Gene Littles. The coaches were Hubie Brown and Stan Albeck.

The 6-foot-10 Bradley played basketball the way Leonard Bernstein conducted. He was a master of the game, able to play all five positions. At NIU, Bradley once was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. As a pro, there were comparisons to Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Cazzie Russell, Oscar Robertson and George McGinnis.

Bradley led East Chicago Roosevelt to a 28-0 record and the 1970 Indiana state title. He was recruited by more than 300 colleges before picking Northern, which went 38-8 over two seasons with him on the floor.

He took the ABA by storm long before there was ESPN, cable TV and sports radio.

Sadly, young players today couldn't write a complete sentence about Bradley. He's a name without a face, without a history.

If the charismatic star had one glaring weakness during his short life, it was gullibility. He was too big-hearted, too friendly, too trusting. As his pro career eventually sputtered due to various injuries, he fell in with the wrong crowd. They used his celebrity to their advantage.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 20, 1982, Jim Bradley was ambushed and gunned down on a Portland backstreet after leaving the Copper Penny II, a local bar frequented by drug pushers.

Robbery was the motive, police said.

Bradley's friends back home said it was a tragic case of mistaken identity.

No arrests were ever made.

If any Hoosier rightfully deserves a place in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, it's Jim Bradley. But for some strange reason, no coach or administrator ever nominated him. And if they did, it's doubtful the HOF would consider his induction, given the circumstances of his death.

They obviously are more forgiving in Louisville, where the Kentucky Colonels are the first team to be inducted en masse into the Kentucky Hall of Fame.

Kentucky has a heart, it would seem.

This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at ahamnik@nwitimes.com.

I was a freshman in 1971/72 when Jim Bradley's Huskies defeated Indiana and had a dream season. We only lost a couple of games that year (one to Doug Collins and Ill State). Despite our excellent record we were not invited to the NIT or NCAA tournaments. We were an independent in those days.

The thing I remember most about Jim Bradley was that he just quietly went about his game and you did not notice him all that much on the court. Yet at the end of the game you looked at the stats and he always had a ton of points and rebounds.

It really is a tragedy the way his life ended. It is nice to hear his name surface occasionaly as it brings back nice memories for us old folk.

I don't know, it was hard not to notice the 6'10" Bradley
dribbling behind his back while running at full speed on the
break. This was 10 years before Magic Johnson came around.

That still is the most fun BBall team I've ever watched. Beating
Bobby Knight, watching Harris & Johnson on a dazzling fast break, Zelinski
dropping one from the corner while the whole packed field house
yelled "Z' in unison, watching McKiernan's rabid defense on
the likes of Doug Collins, and Cleveland Ivey's power moves.

And, that SI cover of Bradley wearing an NIU uniform in the middle
of a cornfield is a classic.

East Chicago???

It was Jackson, not Johnson. Remember how they used to roll the ball inbounds on teams that did not cover the inbounds pass?

When they really got their offense going it was a thing of beauty and a special thing to watch. They blew out many/most of the teams that they played.

You had to get up at 6:30 a.m. to get a basketball ticket as all of the tickets were gone within an hour on the day they were made available. Chick Evans was rocking each and every game. No one gave a damn about the football team (well almost no one, I went to all of the games). Jerry Ipoliti was our football coach that year and you might not believe this but he was even worse as a football coach than as the MAC commissioner.

You're right. Larry Jackson. I camped out all night more than once for tickets
that and the next year.

Ippoliti did suck as a coach. One of his teams had four players go to
the NFL and was barely over .500. I actually took a class with him called
"Theory and Practice of Football" as a PE elective. (It was quite popular
with the players.) But, I swear that I could have taught him stuff just
because I came from a good high school football program.

I was interested in seeing the SI Cover with Bradley on it...I couldn't find it. Anybody know for sure if he actually was on the cover?

He was on the cover and if I remember right in a cornfield. He was the number one recruit in the nation that year and people were amazed that he chose NIU.

I think he was on the inside of the cover as you opened the cover for Sports Illustrated.
Why dont they have that cover on display in the convo center? I think the hall of fame pictures of people are lame as well...hand drawings....get actual photos.....and get a big pic of the 71-72 team......Jim Phillips are you reading this?

....and to think of the time and place where NIU bball is now nearly 35 yrs later with a new arena and where it once was....

jjj Wrote:I think he was on the inside of the cover as you opened the cover for Sports Illustrated.
Why dont they have that cover on display in the convo center? I think the hall of fame pictures of people are lame as well...hand drawings....get actual photos.....and get a big pic of the 71-72 team......Jim Phillips are you reading this?

SI has a web site with all their covers and I can't find the Bradley
cover. It may have been on page one, but I vaguely remember
something about a regional cover. Now I'm curious. Can anyone
shed any light on this?

Here is a link to the only Pic I could find....I'm betting this was the picture.

<a href='http://www3.niu.edu/dept/athletics/mbball/100years/' target='_blank'>Jim Bradley PIC</a>

Huskie359 Wrote:Here is a link to the only Pic I could find....I'm betting this was the picture.

<a href='http://www3.niu.edu/dept/athletics/mbball/100years/' target='_blank'>Jim Bradley PIC</a>

I believe that picture came from the article.
But, I recall the "cover" photo as being different.

bikechuck Wrote:We were an independent in those days.

That is incorrect. How soon we forget. We were not an independent in 1971-1972. We were in the ever so forgetable Conference of Midwestern Universities (aka the MIdwestern Conference) with Ball State, Indiana State, SIU and ISU. That conference lasted all of two years, 1970-1971 and 1971-1972. Theu never did play a football season.

When I was a senior in 1970, they were looking for a name for the conference. I suggested the "Flatlands Unversities Conference." It was rejected.

I believe the picture was inside the magazine with the article. I haven't seen it in a long time but I had cut it out of the magazine and I remember Doug Collins being on the other side.