12 Apr 1960, Athens Daily Review

Services Held Tuesday for Mr. Bradshaw

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon for Wesley W. Bradshaw, who died suddenly in an Athens hospital at 6:30 p.m., Sunday. He had been visiting relatives in Athens when he suf fered a heart attack at 10 a.m., Sunday. Services were held at 4 from Carroll and Lehr Memory Chapel with the Rev. Lee Ramsour and the Rev. Gordon Alexander officiating, and burial was in Athens City Cemetery. Pallbearers were Charlie Hawn, Dick Derden, J. P. Pickens, Tom Davis. Evans, Hobson Green, Ed Green Walker, Beatty Jones and Gene Spencer. Mr. Bradshaw, 62, was considered by many as the greatest athlete in Athens High School history, and he certainly won more honors than any other to date. He was an outstanding football player and participated in most other sports as well. He made his home at Lancaster and was a teacher in the Dallas school system at the time of his death. He was born Nov. 26, 1897 in the New York community. of Henderson County. He and Miss Nola Knight were married in Dallas in 1927. She survives him along with a son, Wesley W. Bradshaw Jr. of Livintown, N.J.; a daughter, Mrs. Hugh Duerson of Omaha, Neb. a brother, Jim Bradshaw of Trinidad; six sisters,
Mrs. Mary Johnson of Athens, , Mrs. Frank Denman of Tyler, Mrs. Laura Murphey of Athens, Mrs. Jack Zachry of Longview, Mrs. Ray Basett of Fort Worth, and Mrs. W. E. Henry of Athens and three grandchildren. A member of the Baptist
Church, Mr. Bradshaw graduated from Baylor University in 1923 after compiling an outstanding record as a college athlete. He was one of the few four lettermen in the history of the Southwest
Conference, winning awards in football, baseball, basketball and track. His name still appears in the
SWC record book. He was captain of his team in 1922 and led the Bears to the conference cham-pionship, the next to last time the Baptist institution has won it (the Bears copped the title again in 1924). He still ranks third in scoring in Southwest Conference history. Only Texas A&M's great Joel Hunt and TCU's Purple Phantom, Jim Swink have scored more points. Bradshaw tallied 119 in 1922, Hunt 128 in 1927 and Swink 125 in 1955. Bradshaw once booted a 42 yard field goal in a 1922 game against SMU, and that still ranks the sixth best in conference history. He tallied 23 conversions in 22 and that mark is still good enough for seventh place in the record book.
He was one of the earlier professional gridders with some of the first pro teams. He played with Rock Island, Ill. and that team later became the Chicago Bears. He also held a number of coaching positions in high school and college, including Athens High School where he starred as a schoolboy. Cleburne and Fort Worth Polytechnic are a couple of the other high schools where he once coached. He was a pioneer member of the Texas Conference Coaches Association, which has since become the Texas High School Coaches
Association. He was one of the Southwest
Conference's first All-Americans while running wild on the grid iron at Baylor.