Published: July 17, 2008 11:32 pm            

Release from Bengals opened world of medicine to Bradley

Dr. Jim Bradley has had a tremendous impact on the careers of some of the NFL’s top performers for two decades. His skills as an orthopedic surgeon have enabled hundreds of injured athletes to continue playing the game.

Between a football playing career that included a stop at Penn State and a tryout with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, and his work in medicine, Bradley earned his spot in the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame. He will be inducted Saturday alongside his sister, Patty Bradley-Marino, and seven others.

“My first reaction was that my brother Tom and Jack Ham have been making fun of me for years because they were in and I wasn’t and now I’m happy that I don’t have to listen to that anymore,” he joked.

“The second thing is that it is such a rich area for athletics that they would choose me is a great honor. I understand why Jack and Tom got in, but I’m a little different story.”

Bradley has been the head team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1991 and is the past president of the NFL Physicians Society. He serves on the NFL Injury and Safety Panel.

Bradley specializes in orthopedic sports medicine and reconstructive surgery of the shoulder, elbow and knee and has built a practice with his business partner, Chip Burke, that caters to elite-level athletes in sports from football and hockey to professional golf.

His athletic career has roots at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, where he played football and earned all-state honors on both offense and defense in 1970. As a Crushers end, Bradley was an Associated Press first-team defense pick and a second-team offense selection.

His athletic skills took him to Happy Valley, where Bradley played under legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

“Jim was a heck of a football player,” Paterno said during a stop at a Johnstown fundraiser on Thursday at the Holiday Inn. “Of the three Bradley’s, Matt was probably the best pure athlete. Jim was a guy that was an opportunist. They were all good athletes, even Tom. Jim was a guy, if they gave him a shot at it, he’d make a play. He was very aggressive and a fun guy to be around.”

As a senior, Jim Bradley started in the defensive backfield and was co-captain of the Nittany Lions. That 1974 season was special because Bradley played on the same Penn State team as his younger brother, Tom, a freshman.

Tom Bradley was inducted into the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. With Jim Bradley and Patty Bradley-Marino entering this year, that means the Bradley family will have three siblings in the Hall.

“If you ask me, the best athlete in the family, it was Patty, there’s no doubt,” Jim Bradley said. “If you look at all the sports and what she did, she’s the best athlete in the family. I’m just happy to be in with her.”

Jim Bradley won the 1975 Dapper Dan College Football Award and was invited to training camp with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals in 1975, but after being one of the final players cut, he followed his father’s footsteps and went into medicine. The late Dr. Samuel Bradley was a longtime Johnstown internist.

“The turning point, the best thing that happened to me, was that I went to the Bengals, and quite frankly, I wasn’t good enough to play at that level,” Bradley said. “I just didn’t train enough. If I had put my mind to it, I could have played.

“But when I went to medical school, I said I’d never take what I had for granted. I was obsessed. I was focused. It was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t go Jack Ham’s path. Day-in and day-out, I can impact a high-performance athlete’s life. The feeling is indescribable to watch an elite athlete perform at that level. It’s that satisfying.”

Jim Bradley earned a medical degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine, then completed general residency training at the University of Tennessee and orthopaedic surgery residency training at the University of Pittsburgh.

He finished his sports medicine fellowship training at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, where Bradley cared for professional athletes from the Los Angeles Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, Kings and Angels, as well as college and high school athletes.

In addition to his duties as the Steelers team physician, Bradley also serves as the team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers when they play in Pittsburgh and as an orthopaedic consultant to several local high school and college athletic teams.

Along with his business partner Burke, the two run a practice that draws elite athletes from a variety of sports, from hockey players to pro golfers.

Bradley and his wife, Bea, have one daughter, 13-year-old Callee.

        

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