• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

Happy birthday to Bradley Hall of Famer Jim Les

Da Coach

Da Coach

Moderator
Staff member
It is Bradley Hall of Famer Jim Les' birthday today (Aug. 18)! He is 55 years old today.

IMO, it is time to retire Jim Les' jersey. Does anyone else agree?
Jim Les is one of only 5 Bradley players to be named MVC Player of the Year (1986), and he is a member of the Bradley All-Century Team (1903-2002).

Jim's career assist average at Bradley of 8.0 assists per game (696 assists in 87 games played), ranks #1 all time in assists/game in Bradley history.
His total of 696 assists ranks #2 behind Anthony Manuel, considering Jim played only 2?? seasons at Bradley after transferring from Cleveland State.
And his senior season, he helped lead Bradley to one of the best seasons in Bradley history with a record 32 wins (32-3) and a Top 10 national ranking.

He wore #15, and that jersey number was retired on Feb. 9, 1991 because of Paul Unruh. So it would be easy to add Jim Les' jersey to those already retired.

Only 5 other Bradley graduates played more games in the NBA than Jim, and only 6 scored more points in their NBA careers (Walker, Hawkins, Phegley, McMillon, & Cable).

Happy birthday Jim!
 
Retire Les??™ jersey! He proved himself on the court. He proved himself on our sideline as head coach. He proved his detractors wrong in California at UC Davis. Bring him back into the family with the send off he should have had in the first place!
 
I'd like to see Bradley schedule a home and home, and have the ceremony when they visit Carver Arena. But, I am not expecting it will happen.
 
Happy birthday Coach Les. You and Coach Versace and Coach Molinari put Bradley basketball back on the map where it belonged.
 
Happy Birthday Jim

Happy Birthday Jim

I definitely feel that we should honor Jim Les by retiring his jersey. I like the idea of a home and home series with U of Cal - Davis as a way to get Les back in Peoria and also an effort on Bradley's part to apologize to Les and to honor him. Although this would never have happened under the previous administration, I hope that the Roberts/Reynolds regime would see the value of doing this.
 
Knowing Jim, I actually don't think he would want an apology. The only people he had issues with are long gone now and he could not be happier with where he is now. And he's happy to put things behind him. He still loves Bradley and the people of Peoria, and I believe he'd like to play Bradley.
 
The Old Guy said:
I definitely feel that we should honor Jim Les by retiring his jersey. I like the idea of a home and home series with U of Cal - Davis as a way to get Les back in Peoria and also an effort on Bradley's part to apologize to Les and to honor him. Although this would never have happened under the previous administration, I hope that the Roberts/Reynolds regime would see the value of doing this....
Click to expand...
sadly, UC-Davis will probably honor his career before Bradley does...
 
The Old Guy said:
I definitely feel that we should honor Jim Les by retiring his jersey. I like the idea of a home and home series with U of Cal - Davis as a way to get Les back in Peoria and also an effort on Bradley's part to apologize to Les and to honor. Although this would never have happened under the previous administration, I hope that the Roberts/Reynolds regime would see the value of doing this.
Click to expand...

I like the idea of retiring Jim's jersey. He deserves it and maybe it would help him forget the gross injustices he was subjected to by those who really had no place being in the leadership roll of our programs.
 
Da Coach said:
Knowing Jim, I actually don't think he would want an apology. The only people he had issues with are long gone now and he could not be happier with where he is now. And he's happy to put things behind him. He still loves Bradley and the people of Peoria, and I believe he'd like to play Bradley.
Click to expand...

I am glad to know that Jim still loves Bradley and the people of Peoria. He must know he was the victim of an administration that had no idea how to run athletics. I hope he knows how much most of us think of him.
 
I don't know if there is a difference between "retired jersey" and "retired number"...
but according to the Bradley basketball archives..here are the numbers that are retired-

11- Mitchell Anderson
15- Paul Unruh
31- Chet Walker
31- Joe Allen
33- Bob Carney
33- Hersey Hawkins
45- Roger Phegley
https://bradleybraves.com/documents/2016/10/3//Bradley_Basketball_Records.pdf?id=4407

I agree that the next numbers to be retired should be...
15 Jim Les, 24 Anthony Parker, 35 David Thirdkill
 
Thank you tornado. I agree that Les should be added to the list but is it possible that he and Thirdkill are hurt by not playing a full 3 or 4 years at Bradley? If that's they case then, IMO, Les needs to also be considered for taking a Bradley team to the Sweet 16 as a coach.

Regarding Thirdkill, would he even show up if Bradley retired his jersey? Would Bradley even be able to track him down?
 
PhiAlphaBoy said:
Thank you tornado. I agree that Les should be added to the list but is it possible that he and Thirdkill are hurt by not playing a full 3 or 4 years at Bradley? If that's they case then, IMO, Les needs to also be considered for taking a Bradley team to the Sweet 16 as a coach.

Regarding Thirdkill, would he even show up if Bradley retired his jersey? Would Bradley even be able to track him down?
Click to expand...

we know where David is...he was at Arch Madness a couple years ago

lives in St. Louis....many fans met & talked with him at the game and Dave Snell & Dave Reynolds interviewed him
I think he would return if we had a ceremony for him..
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26164
 
Thank you for the info and the link tornado. I wasn't aware that Thirdkill had been discovered. Great to have him back in the fold.
 
There is still a bit of mystery, because when we talked to him he said he has always lived in St. Louis. However, several Bradley athletic department people in the past tried to track him down, like when the 1981-82 team was inducted into the Bradley HOF and again when Bradley put together the Team of the Century in 2003, and he could not be located. Even family members who were located refused to help find him.
But then he showed up at the Bradley team hotel in St. Louis in March, 2016 and as mentioned, attended a send-off celebration, came to the game, and was interviewed by Dave Snell and Dave Reynolds.
www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26164

I have not seen him at the last 2 MVC Tournaments (2017 or 2018 ).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top