Category Archives: Sports

Sadly, the Bradley Senior Boys basketball team’s season and quest for a state championship came to a premature end last Thursday night.  In the quarterfinals of the state tournament at Westside-Greer’s Ferry, they lost to Guy-Perkins, 65–62.

While Coach Bennie Ray Harris would be the last person to make excuses, the simple fact of the matter is that the Bears were not as dominating after an injury suffered by a key player in the conference tournament.  Nevertheless, they had an excellent season with a final record of 34 consecutive wins before the one loss. 

Congratulations to these Senior Boys and to Coach Harris for all their hard work and for their fine season!

As mentioned in the previous post, Bradley has had six senior girls basketball teams win the state championship.  The very first of those was the senior girls of 1962, pictured below in the old gymnasium.  Incidentally, 1961–1962 was the last basketball season for the old gymnasium.

From left to right:  Earlene Williamson, Patsy Collier, Linda Lamar, Ginger Hamner, Loretta Thompson, Eddie Adkins, Patsy Morgan, Mary Alice Milloway, Marlene Umphries, Pat Givens, and Coach Leo Johnson.  Diane Higdon does not appear in this photo.

In those days, the Lafayette County Tournament was still an annual event, and Bradley defeated Lewisville, 54–35, in the finals of that tournament.  In what was then called the Regional Tournament, held at Genoa Central, Bradley defeated Lewisville, 28–25, and Bright Star, 60–46.  They won the District 7–West Tournament by first defeating Kirby, then defeating Saratoga, 43–27, and Mineral Springs, 59–45.

The Senior Girls won the State Tournament, held in Parkin, by defeating the host Parkin team, 47–38, in the finals.  Diane Higdon Fletcher remembers that the semifinal game was difficult and close, although she is not certain who the opponent was.

Shown below are the State Tournament All-Tournament team, on the court at Parkin after the final game. The four Bradley players selected, Ginger Hamner, Marlene Umphries, Diane Higdon and Linda Lamar are in uniform just to the right of the center of the picture.  The players in uniform on the left side of the picture, one of whom is quite tall, are from Parkin.

Shown below are some of the members of the team after they arrived home, with the state championship trophy.  The car has obviously been labeled with the word “champs.”

According to the 1962 Bradley High School Yearbook, players selected for recognition were:

All-Regional:  Marlene Umphries, Eddie Adkins.

All-District:  Ginger Hamner, Diane Higdon.

All-State:  Marlene Umphries, Ginger Hamner, Diane Higdon, Linda Lamar.

Finally, below is a photo of forward Ginger Hamner working the edge of the free-throw lane in a game in the old gym.  In this age of digital photography, that old gym would have been an amateur photographer’s dream for taking basketball action shots!

UPDATE 2/25/09:  The above photo was taken by James Drake for the 1962 school yearbook.  He writes:  “This photo was first published in the 1962 Bear Yearbook.  The photo was made with a Rolicord camera with flash while standing on the stage during the 1962 championship season.  Notice the basketball.  That was pure luck and that was why it was chosen for the yearbook.”  Maybe it was luck, James, but that’s an excellent photo!

February is high school basketball tournament time, so a look at Bradley’s impact on the Arkansas Activities Association’s record book is perhaps in order.

Most of that impact, of course, occurred on the girls side of the record book.  The Bradley Senior Boys won their only state championship in 1994, but hopefully will add another in the very near future (see below).

The Bradley Senior Girls share the record for the most girls state championships, six, with Guy-Perkins.  Those occurred in 1962, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, and 2000.  Arkansas girls basketball changed from the six-girl, three-on-three format to the five-girl, full-court format after the 1979 season, so all but one of those championships was in the six-girl format.  The 1962, 1966, 1967 and 1968 championships were under the direction of Coach Leo Johnson.  The 1969 championship was under the direction of Coach Jim Reppo.  The 2000 championship in the five-girl, full-court format was under the direction of current Bradley Coach Bennie Ray Harris.

Bradley also shares the record for the most consecutive girls state championships (4, in 1966–1969), with four other schools.  Those are Stephens (1975–1978), Van Buren (1953–56), Marked Tree (dates not listed in the AAA record book), and Fort Smith Northside (1999–2002).  None of those schools won girls state championships in 2008, so Bradley will continue to share this record for at least four more years.

The record for most points scored in a girls state tournament game is held by Camden Fairview, with 94 points in 2007.  However, Bradley is fifth on the list, with 89 points in a state tournament game in 1967.  (The opponent is not listed in the AAA record book, so perhaps a reader can furnish that information.)  The state tournament was actually held in Bradley that year.

One of the more interesting statistics in the AAA record book is the lowest combined score in a girls state tournament game is 40 points, from Bradley defeating Plumerville, 24–16, in 1968.

The most points scored by an individual player in a girls state tournament game is 55, held by Brenda Rhodes of Wilmar in 1984.  However, the next highest total is 45, by Bradley’s Carone Harris in 2000, a total which was equaled by two other players in 2008.

– – – – –

Earlier, mention was made of the state championship hopes of the Bradley Senior Boys this year.  This past Tuesday, they defeated Taylor, 73–21, to run their record to a perfect 28 wins and 0 losses for the year.  Their closest game so far this year came in the finals of the 78^th Southwest Arkansas Invitational in Saratoga, where they defeated Stephens, 67–65.  Stephens is a class AA school, one classification higher than Bradley, and had recently been ranked number one in the state in that classification.  So, best of luck to the 2009 Bears!

Some of the most visited posts on this site continue to be those regarding the early 1930s Bradley High School football team (posts dated 10/1/08 and 10/6/08).

I recently came across a more-or-less first hand account of a 1932 football game.  It is part of a letter that Frank M. Cochran, Jr., then 11 years old, wrote to a cousin on November 3, 1932.  Bradley was scheduled to play Stamps in Bradley the next day, and had played Hope in Bradley the previous week (October 28, 1932).  The excerpt from the letter reads:

“Stamps plays ball here tomorrow.  They are going to bring a band and a lot of people.  Bradley has a good team.  They held Hope to a 12–6 defeat for Bradley.  It was Bradley’s ball on the 50, 4^th [down] and about 8 [yards to go for a first down].  Thomas Williams punted to Hope’s 2 yard line.  They tried to throw the ball.  It was third [down] and about 5 [yards to go for a first down].  They punted to Pat Coker on Hope’s 30.  He got the ball and ran for a touchdown.  Bruz [Hamner] tried for point but failed and got knocked out.  Sims went in.”

– – –

For a point of historical reference, it can be noted that on the following Tuesday, November 8, 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover in the election for President of the United States.

The following article appeared in the February 23, 1956, edition of the Lafayette County Democrat.  It is reprinted here with permission.  It was apparently written by Briner Thomas, publisher of that newspaper.

“BRADLEY GIRLS WIN DIST. TOURNAMENT, PLACE TWO ON ALL-DISTRICT TEAM

The District 7B Basketball Tournament ended here [Stamps] Saturday night with Bradley winning over some very tough competition and placing two on the All-District team.

The games started Monday with Stamps winning over Springhill 42 to 26; Bodcaw over Genoa Central 33 to 29; Gilham over Kirby 60 to 36; Mineral Springs over Kirby [?] 40 to 32; Delight over Fouke 47 to 36; Bradley over Umpire 41 to 30 and Lewisville over Murfreesboro 52 to 33.

On Tuesday, Lewisville won over Guernsey 60 to 48; Delight walked over Laneburg 50 to 23; Mineral Springs took Gilham easily 61 to 27; Dierks over Horatio 52 to 31 and Foreman nosed out Okolona 50 to 45; with Emmett trouncing Garland 69 to 38 and Bodcaw taking Willisville 44 to 34.

Wednesday results were Emmett over Dierks 49 to 45; Delight over Blevins 45 to 37; Mineral springs over Bodcaw 54 to 31 and Bradley getting by Lewisville 39 to 31.

Friday’s results gave Bradley another win, this over a tough Mineral Springs team 51 to 38 and Emmett over Delight 45 to 43.

Saturday night, the gym was just not big enough to hold the crowd and spectators lined the walls and aisles to see a game that was full of thrills right up to the last minute, with Bradley wearing down Emmett in the final minutes and winning 60 to 52.

The best sports awards went to Ann Draper, Garrett Wells, Pat Parker, Rebecca Overmire, Sylvia Riley and Carolyn Cox.

The All District team selected by the coaches and officials were, reading left to right in the above picture, Sheffield of Lewisville, McClendon of Lewisville; Terry of Mineral Springs, [Sissie] Gore of Bradley, [Bonnie] Fish of Bradley, Hill of Emmett, Cox of Emmett and Patsy Blankenship of Stamps.

No one asked my opinion, but I picked three first places that anyone who saw the games will agree on and that is the prettiest girl on the teams was Pat Parker of Lewisville, the best forward was Nancy McGee of Bradley and the best guard was a No. 12 of Bradley and we never did learn her name.”

– – –

Does anyone know who “No. 12 of Bradley” was?