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Just one more historic note and a trivia question....
Back in the 1920's the Bradley mens team was known as the "Techsters" and Techmen" since the official name of the school was Bradley Polytechnic Institute.
The name didn't become Bradley University until 1946.
Anyway, school nicknames were quite informal and unofficial until teams started adopting permanent, official nicknames in the late 1920's and 1930's. For a while in the mid 1930's, the Bradley team became the Bradley "Indians", but by the late 1930's it was the desire of folks on campus to find something different and somewhat unique as there were numerous other schools calling themselves the Indians back then.
AJ Robertson and Dave Owen (who later became University President in 1946) in 1937 put together a list of several names and went about campus and town asking various opinions.
The names in the mix were
"Hilltoppers", "Injuns", "Robbymen", "Techsters", "Techmen", and "Braves".
After just a short interval, it was quite clear what the favorite was and the Bradley mens basketball team became the Braves.
Here is the trivia question....
Contrary to popular belief, reality shows didn't just originate in our generation.
Way back in 1926 WMBD Radio held a contest, and six different entrants tried their best to win the
"So You Want to Be an Announcer" contest.
A young 19 year old who had already been doing the Manual High School basketball games on WMBD entered the contest which would have given him an opportunity to be a part time co-announcer for some Bradley games.
Sadly this young man finished 5th out of the six contestants, but he didn't let that discourage his hopes.
Later, after hanging around the studio, this young man was offered a part time job filling in with NO PAY. Later he became the fulltime announcer on WMBD coverage of Bradley basketball games and subsequently went on to "stardom" as a major league baseball announcer.
Who was this early pioneer of announcing Bradley basketball?
Answer---mouse over to read
Jack Brickhouse
Back in the 1920's the Bradley mens team was known as the "Techsters" and Techmen" since the official name of the school was Bradley Polytechnic Institute.
The name didn't become Bradley University until 1946.
Anyway, school nicknames were quite informal and unofficial until teams started adopting permanent, official nicknames in the late 1920's and 1930's. For a while in the mid 1930's, the Bradley team became the Bradley "Indians", but by the late 1930's it was the desire of folks on campus to find something different and somewhat unique as there were numerous other schools calling themselves the Indians back then.
AJ Robertson and Dave Owen (who later became University President in 1946) in 1937 put together a list of several names and went about campus and town asking various opinions.
The names in the mix were
"Hilltoppers", "Injuns", "Robbymen", "Techsters", "Techmen", and "Braves".
After just a short interval, it was quite clear what the favorite was and the Bradley mens basketball team became the Braves.
Here is the trivia question....
Contrary to popular belief, reality shows didn't just originate in our generation.
Way back in 1926 WMBD Radio held a contest, and six different entrants tried their best to win the
"So You Want to Be an Announcer" contest.
A young 19 year old who had already been doing the Manual High School basketball games on WMBD entered the contest which would have given him an opportunity to be a part time co-announcer for some Bradley games.
Sadly this young man finished 5th out of the six contestants, but he didn't let that discourage his hopes.
Later, after hanging around the studio, this young man was offered a part time job filling in with NO PAY. Later he became the fulltime announcer on WMBD coverage of Bradley basketball games and subsequently went on to "stardom" as a major league baseball announcer.
Who was this early pioneer of announcing Bradley basketball?
Answer---mouse over to read
Jack Brickhouse