Reflecting on the life of Jim Bradley

In 1984 I broadcast my first LCHS vs. Mayfield football game. I would wind up broadcasting nearly two dozen of those wonderful battles over the next thirty-one years. Things changed dramatically ten years after my first broadcast, it all happened when Jim Bradley left Roswell to come back home to Las Cruces. It is almost impossible to overstate the impact Jim Bradley had on the entire community in Las Cruces when he returned.

In the booth with Brad Beasley for a Mayfield - LCHS battle

I remember Jim’s very first state championship after he came home. Of course it was not his first title which came decades earlier at Mayfield. This win, in 1995, came on the road in Clovis. It put the city of Las Cruces on the state football map. It is often said that the state championship continues to go through Las Cruces to this very day.

Many Jim Bradley mourners celebrated that victory over Clovis in 1995 until the wee hours of the morning. We repeated this amazing process many times.

Jim Bradley was more than just a great football coach, a great family man, and a role model for me. He was also a source of complete fascination. I have always been interested in studying ambitious men and women who are able to accomplish great things. And I do not know any other individual on a personal basis who achieved more of his lofty goals and helped others achieve theirs….. than Jim Bradley.

I must have interviewed Jim on the radio at least a hundred times. He always spoke his mind and he always shared his time generously with me. After he stepped down as Mayfield’s head coach he continued to do those pre-game interviews. I cherished those times together because he was so entertaining and so appreciative of the opportunity to share his thoughts.

When I decided to coach tennis at Mayfield in the late 1990’s Jim is the first person I called. Predictably he was very supportive and he shared his insights and his sources with me on how he had helped young people learn and how he motivated them. I took notes during those exchanges and did my best to take advantage of his wisdom.

I particularly remember a trip we made to Santa Fe together to raise money to build the Field of Dreams. I marveled at how adept Jim was at working the political crowd. Some of the most famous people in New Mexico wanted a piece of Jim Bradley and he was able to lever his popularity. In many ways his mere presence helped the entire Field of Dreams Task Force achieve its goal of launching that sports complex. I particularly remember the night Bump Elliott, Jim Bradley, and I had pancakes at two-thirty in the morning after all of the Santa Fe politicking was done on that trip.

Bradley doing what he did best

I never talked to Jim Bradley specifically about ways to improve my business, but I paid close attention to the things he said about focusing on specific tasks and producing success. I tried my best to apply his principles in the workplace. And though Jim never knew it, he had a profound impact on my own success as a business person in this community. I wish I had taken the time to thank him for helping me.

I remember so well one phrase Jim would repeat over and over. It is permanently embedded in my brain and it dominates my attitude about living a successful life to this very day. He said, “When we simply do the ordinary good things, extraordinarily well, we will become a great team.”  It was a profound statement about greatness. These days I repeat the advice often to others.

Jim truly was a student of greatness. He was far more of an intellectual and deep thinker than the stereo-typed football coach.

I remember our fall workouts on the tennis courts. We were right next to the football practice field. I could not help but take a few minutes to leave the courts nearly every day and simply take in the intensity of the Mayfield football practices. It was amazing watching the Trojans run the same play over and over again until they did it perfectly……..NOT ONCE but several times. Jim Bradley loved repetition and he loved practices.  He had a razor sharp tongue and sometimes he would raise the hairs on the back of my neck with the things he barked at players and sometimes even his assistant coaches. Jim was in his element at practice and he was in total command. Practice was sacred. There is no question that Jim Bradley built thousands of very good men out of thousands of very average boys over the course of his life on the practice fields.

The word of Jim’s passing came to me as I was driving on the outskirts of Seattle. I had nearly two thousand miles of driving to reflect on the enormity of his life.

I have lived in Las Cruces for thirty-eight years now. I have known many Las Cruces natives who have gone on to accomplish many great things in their lives.

But there is very little doubt in my mind after reflecting about this individual, that it is Jim Bradley who is the greatest man the City of Las Cruces has ever produced. The reason is not only was he GREAT but he produced greatness in others. This is the rarest of all gifts. And all the proof of this fact regarding Jim is that there are so many people thinking about how he much he affected their lives as they mourn his passing……..…just as I do.