Saturday, July 12, 2014

CIAA loses basketball icon Harry James Bradley Sr.

Mr. Bradley was honored as CIAA Coach of the Year in 1989 while serving as the head coach at his Alma Mater, Saint Paul's College. His collegiate coaching career included stops at Virginia State, Saint Paul's and North Carolina Central University.

HOPEWELL, Virginia — The area has lost a local basketball icon with the death of Harry James Bradley on July 3.

"Coach Brad," as he was known, was honored in 2010 when his name was added to the Hopewell Athletic Wall of Fame.

Bradley was a member of a state championship basketball team at the all-black Carter G. Woodson School before segregation ended in 1968.

During the ceremony in 2010, Bradley said he was grateful for his inclusion on the Wall of Fame as an alumnus of Carter G. Woodson.

"I want to thank the committee for selecting me and having the foresight of the inclusion of people who played at Carter G. Woodson," Bradley said. "At some places this would never have happened."

Graham Vance Johnson, a basketball star at Hopewell and later at Virginia Commonwealth University who was added to the Wall of Fame the same year, thanked Bradley, who was his junior varsity basketball coach.

"Coach Bradley didn't just make me a good basketball player, he made me a good man," he said at the time.

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