Quad-City Sports Hall of Fame the 2017 Class
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COMMEMORATIVE SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2017 SECTION JAY HATCH JAMES JONES JEFF BRADLEY QUAD-CITY SPORTS HALL OF FAME THE 2017 CLASS INSIDE: Honoring the 2017 class, plus bios of inductees from 1987 to 2016 SALUTE TO SPORTS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 3 | 7:30 P.M. | BETTENDORF HIGH SCHOOL Get back in the game with OS. Call 563-344-9292 to schedule an appointment. 00 1 H2 | SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2017 QUAD-CITY SPORTS HALL OF FAME 2017 CLASS | JEFF BRADLEY Bradley’s cycling career took him around world JIM MEENAN [email protected] Jeff Bradley used to wait at the edge of the driveway as his dad, Mel, and older sister, Debie, rode off on their bikes on a training ride. Marlene Bradley, Jeff’s mother, remembers it all very well. Jeff, only 8 years old at the time, wanted so badly to join them. In about a year or so, he was soon riding with them on long training rides in a sport that 18 years later — in 1987 — would see him ride in the sport’s premier event, the Tour de France. Three years earlier, he was an alternate for the U.S. in the 1984 Olympics for the four-man team time trials event. FILE PHOTO Bradley, the premier cyclist in Jeff Bradley’s athletic career started the history of the Quad-Cities, as a speedskater. He was a junior will be enshrined May 3 in the national champion at age 10 in 1971 Quad-City Sports Hall of Fame and took fourth in the 5,000 meters in ceremonies at the 36th an- at the U.S. Olympic Trials for the nual Quad-City Times Salute to 1980 Winter Olympics, one spot out Sports at Bettenforf High School of qualifying. Performing Arts Center. JEFF COOK, QUAD-CITY TIMES Jeff Bradley, an inductee into the Quad-City Sports Hall of Fame, poses for a photo at his bike shop in Davenport. Start on skates Bradley won 150 races during his career and competed in the 1987 Tour de France. the race ended. For the Bradleys, cycling was After his recovery, he finished a family affair that really began sports) anymore. You are either said. “So we spent the next three Schuler remembers Bradley the the season, even returning to Eu- with speedskating. a speedskater or a cyclist. They years from 1980 to 1984 on the person, well, too. rope. But at age 27 that year, he Mel Bradley was a speedskater might cross over a little bit, but Olympics.” “He basically is reserved and opted to retire and return home himself on the ponds of Credit Is- they don’t compete.” The highlight of that time came kind of quiet,” Schuler said. “You to the bike business. land in his youth. And when his That fact does not bother him, with a gold medal in 1983 in the get on the bike and he’s a killer.“ “It was a young age to retire,” kids were old enough, he took either. Team Time Trials in what was He was a great teammate, he said. “A lot of guys are now just them there and to Vander Veer “I get it that things are chang- then the very popular Pan Amer- though. hitting their stride.” Park. ing,” he said. “It’s like anything ican Games. “In cycling, there’s lots of ways The average age of racers now It was a different time back else.” But Bradley fell one man short you are a teammate,” Schuler said. is probably 24 to late 30s, he said. then in the Quad-Cities. Winters Bradley was a junior national of the lineup for that event for “You can’t see it from the side- But he had business partners at were generally much harsher and champion in speedskating at age the Los Angeles Summer Games lines. There’s a lot of positioning On Two Wheels, and something ice on ponds or man-made rinks 10 in 1971. He also took fourth of 1984. The U.S. team would win things, technical things, block- to come home to. lasted a good long while. in the 5,000 meters at the U.S. a bronze, and being the alternate, ing for your teammates. Jeff was You go there now in the winter Olympic Trials for the 1980 it left him without a medal. a very selfless teammate. All worth it and you might see people feeding Winter Olympics, one spot out “You always had six or eight “He helped Greg LeMond in his To those who knew him back ducks, Jeff said. of qualifying. guys in the mix,” Bradley ex- career, and he helped a lot of his then, Bradley today seems the “When I was a kid, Vander Veer plained. “They have to go with 7-Eleven teammates.” same level-headed person he lagoon was just packed with kids Down to one sport who’s going the best at the time. As juniors, he and LeMond were was long ago. On Two Wheels is skating and playing games and Bradley got to the national “The year before I was proba- “a dynamic duo,” Schuler added. now called Trek Bicycle Store. It’s playing hockey,” he said. team level as a speedskater. But bly the No. 2 guy. But then I had located in Davenport on Eastern, Bradley seemed to have nat- it pretty much ended in 1980 a crash right before the Olympic Tour de France brutal just off of Kimberly Road, and ural talent as a speedskater and when Heiden lapped him in a Trials and broke my wrist, and it Bradley made it to the Tour de he’s been the sole owner for about did well, winning the Davenport 10,000-meter event. set me back a bit. I slid down to France in 1987. 10 years. Silver Skates event at age 7 for the “At that point I was trying to the fifth guy.” “It is (brutal),” he said. “They Bradley is very appreciative to first of many times. make two Olympic teams, the do show some of the brutality of the Quad-Cities and the support “It was a family affair,” Bradley speedskating and the cycling Time to turn pro it on TV, the guys crashing, the it gave him when he was a rising said. “Myself, my younger sis- team,” Bradley said. “At the Unlike now, back then an ath- guys getting dropped and falling star in cycling. ter, Jacque, and my older sister, Olympic Trials in Milwaukee or lete could not turn pro and be an off the pack. He even appreciates his teach- Debie, and my dad, were all the West Allis, I came down with Olympian. It was one or the other. “But the exciting part of the ers at Davenport West High athletes of the family. That was mono and that pretty much shot “It was time to go to the next race is the guys battling to win. School for their understanding kind of our thing. We went and my speedskating season. level,” Bradley said. They’re the only ones who are re- when he would miss classes for speed skated.” “I remember I was paired He first made the 7-Eleven cy- covering every day and going out weeks at a time to train in Col- The family had success locally with Eric Heiden in the 10,000 cling team in 1985, touring Eu- to battle and feeling good. orado. and then began competing in the meters and he lapped me. That rope in races such as the Tour de “It’s really brutal on the work- During his pro career, he made Midwest, and the success con- wasn’t uncommon then. He gold France, Tour of Italy and Tour of ers, the other 170 guys in the race about $25,000 annually. And tinued. medaled in all five events, so ...” Spain. Being on that first pro team that make up the peloton. They there could be additional prize Cycling, in its earliest stages, Now, it was cycling only. The still means a lot to him. But it was are doing the chasing and doing money earned in criteriums. was really just a way to stay in decision was easy because he was not easy. the pace-setting and carrying He is very satisfied with his shape for speedskating in the a better cyclist than speedskater, “For a full team of Americans bottles up to the leaders on the career. summer, Bradley said. Bradley said. to show up and start, it was like a climb. “To do it all from the Quad-Cit- He had already been excelling European team coming over and “The worker roles are tough. ies, was pretty special for me, Visit to the Bike Club in the juniors, always running playing in the NFL,” he said. “It It’s a hard, hard sport.” too,” he said. “I got to see the The family’s beginning into cy- 1-2 in the national junior titles was really strange. The Tour de France averages world.” cling was pretty unremarkable. with friend and teammate, Greg “It was tough. The acceptance about 90 to 105 miles a day. He never attended college. “My Mel was asked to attend a LeMond. was slow to come. But we started Some days on flatter routes, cy- cycling was my college,” he said. Quad-City Bike Club meeting, LeMond, who lost one junior getting results pretty early on.” clists might ride 130 to 140 miles. Bradley’s cycling career ended and when someone asked what national title to Bradley in three The big step came in the Giro Shorter days, involving four hill well ahead of the doping era.