Sports Editor’s Note: The following was submitted by Norwich High School Athletic Director Joseph Downey, and was written by Ray Davis.
“I never had more fun than in Norwich,” said Harold Bradley who, in his time, became a legendary coach at Duke and Texas.
The chaplain at Duke in the 1950's was asked if he’d known Bradley. “Ah,” he said, “our gentleman coach.”
At Texas, Longhorn coaches wore Stetsons. “Bradley doesn’t wear ten-gallon hats,” an Austin columnist wrote, “because he doesn’t have a ten-gallon head.”
Fred Shabel was Bradley’s assistant at Duke. He was later head coach at UConn and athletic director at Penn. “Nobody in America,” he once said, “knows more basketball than Hal Bradley.”
Bradley came to Norwich from the small central school at Georgetown, NY. He had been a science teacher there when the school needed a coach. His Georgetown teams compiled a 78-29 record in four years, 1935-39. His boys’ teams won 46, lost 18. His girls’ teams won 32, lost 11, going unbeaten in the final season, en route to the Tri-County League title. Bradley instantly transplanted his winning ways at Georgetown, coaching the Norwich junior varsity to a 13-3 record in 1939-40, his first season on the Chenango.
Over-worked Kurt Beyer was coaching three major sports, serving as athletic director and teaching men’s physical education. His basketball teams had won only three games in two years, and the record for the previous ten years was 44-116. Bradley relieved Beyer in 1940-41, winning 12, losing 6. He followed with 14-4, 11-4, seasons in 1941-42, and 1942-43. He was building. There were to follow three 17-win seasons, in 1943-44, 1945-46, 1946-47. His teams lost more than six games only once.
Bradley's basketball at NHS began on an auditorium stage. When a gymnasium was being built, his Purple Tornado team played one season at the YMCA. Despite hardship, the sport grew large. The gym housed new enthusiasm and support. It was an exciting time. Underdog NHS teams, playing Southern Tier schedules, became sectional contenders, advancing to the championship tournament at Cornell University.
Hall-of-Famer Frank Benenati, who played three years of varsity ball under Bradley, recalls that, “Coach Brad was a teacher, counselor, disciplinarian, idol, and friend. He was thorough in his preparation for the next game, and reserved space on his biology homeroom blackboard to diagram plays.” The 1945 Archive contains a picture of Bradley and Benenati going over a play on that blackboard.
The Bradley teams were Chenango County champions in 1943-44, Iroquois League champions 1944-45, Iroquois League co-champions, Chenango County champions and Section IV finalists in 1945-46, and sectional finalists in 1946-47. His record as a Norwich varsity coach was 100-41 in seven years.
During his Norwich years, Bradley also contributed to and participated in a legion of community programs and activities. Most notably, he began the first Red Cross water safety program in Chenango County, under the leadership of Al Foster. Not in itself, a minor achievement.
