ARKANSAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME PAT BRADLEY

Arkansas right place for former Hog

Arkansas guard Pat Bradley reacts after breaking the record for most career 3-pointers by a Southeastern Conference player during a game against No. 2 Auburn at Bud Walton Arena on Feb. 24, 1999. (ADG File/William Thompson)
Arkansas guard Pat Bradley reacts after breaking the record for most career 3-pointers by a Southeastern Conference player during a game against No. 2 Auburn at Bud Walton Arena on Feb. 24, 1999. (ADG File/William Thompson)

The 12th and final in a series profiling the 2015 inductees into the Arkansas

Pat Bradley’s parents were getting ready to leave Fayetteville to head back home to Everett, Mass., and the Arkansas freshman guard found himself wanting to go with them.

It was the day before fall semester classes began in August of 1995. Rich and MaryAnn Bradley had driven Pat more than 1,500 miles to the Arkansas campus, moved him into the dorm and stayed a few extra days. Now they were having a farewell dinner at AQ Chicken House in Fayetteville.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘I can’t believe I decided to go to school so far away, this was a mistake,’ ” Bradley said. “I told my parents, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to stick around here.’

“I was looking for the easy way out, and I needed someone to be straight and tough with me.”

Rich Bradley took care of that.

“It wasn’t one of those sit you down, pat you on the back, you can do this kind of talks,’ ” Pat Bradley said. “He just said, ‘You know what? There’s a guy back home that said you wouldn’t last here a week.’

“That got my blood boiling.”

Bradley stayed at Arkansas, became the SEC’s top three-pointer shooter and helped the Razorbacks make three NCAA Tournament appearances along with a trip to New York for the NIT Final Four.

Nearly 20 years later, you can’t drag Bradley out of Arkansas. He has lived in Little Rock since 2004, first playing for the Arkansas Rimrockers and then working in the team’s front office and as an assistant coach.

When the Rimrockers folded in May of 2007, Bradley became a radio talk show co-host on The Zone with Justin Acri and Matt Travis on KABZ-FM, 103.7, The Buzz.

“Every time I needed an opportunity, something came out of the blue that was exactly what I needed,” Bradley said. “First it was playing for the Razorbacks, then coming back to Arkansas with the Rimrockers, then being able to stay in Little Rock with the radio show.

“It’s amazing how blessed I’ve been ever since I first came to Arkansas.”

Bradley, 38, will count his blessings again tonight when he is inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame during a banquet at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

“I’m just so appreciative,” Bradley said. “You certainly don’t think about an honor like this when you’re playing. Then as you get older and it happens, you really think about everybody who’s been there for you and helped you get to this point.”

Bradley got the chance to come to Arkansas when he was playing for the New Bedford (Mass.) Buddies at an AAU Tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C., in July of 1994 during the summer between his junior and senior seasons at Everett High School.

Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson and assistant coach Mike Anderson were there to see Ron Mercer — who signed with Kentucky — but came away impressed by Bradley’s shooting and how he played as a point guard in an up-tempo style.

“We went to look at Ron Mercer and we came back with Pat Bradley,” said Anderson, now the Razorbacks’ coach. “So it all worked out for us.”

Bradley was being recruited by Boston University, Northeastern and St. Bonaventure before Arkansas made a scholarship offer.

“Coach Richardson gave me the opportunity to play on an elite level that nobody else did,” Bradley said. “So I was all in.”

After overcoming an initial bout of homesickness and being challenged by his father to stay at Arkansas and excel, Bradley said he dedicated himself to being an impact player.

Bradley started 17 of 32 games as a freshman, averaged 10.2 points and helped an Arkansas team with five new starters reach the 1996 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 before losing to No. 1 Massachusetts in the East Regional semifinals.

Bradley started 108 of his 132 games and averaged 13.4 points over his career at Arkansas. He ranks fifth on the Razorbacks’ all-time scoring list with 1,765 points and made an SEC career-record 366 three-point baskets, a mark since surpassed by Tennessee’s Chris Lofton (431) and Vanderbilt’s Shan Foster (367).

“I never had a kid at Arkansas that could shoot the ball like Pat,” Richardson said. “I gave him the green light and he took total advantage of it.”

Bradley said he could do more than shoot.

“I won’t be able to convince too many people about my defensive prowess, but you can’t play for Nolan Richardson for four years if you don’t have a mind-set about establishing yourself defensively,” Bradley said. “In high school we pressed a lot, so I understood rotations and help defense at a younger age than a lot of other kids.

“That came naturally to me when I got up to Arkansas. I could anticipate two passes away where the ball was going to be. I had really good hands, so if somebody exposed the ball in front of me, I was going to steal it or at least knock it free.”

Bradley had 160 career steals for the Razorbacks with a high of 55 his sophomore season.

“Pat wasn’t the quickest guy in the world, so he used what God gave him, which was his basketball IQ,” Anderson said.

Bradley played in professional leagues in Denmark and France after leaving Arkansas while earning his communications degree in 2001. He had planned to go into college coaching at an NAIA school in Texas but couldn’t pass up the chance to continue playing when the Rimrockers called with an offer.

Now Bradley said he’s an Arkansan by choice.

“I love the Boston area and I go back as often as I can, but with the relationships I made in Arkansas, this was the place for me,” he said. “Being a Razorback opened so many doors for me.

“Then once you get in the door, you’ve got to do something with it, but the way people here feel about the Razorbacks is something unique you don’t get all around the country.

“In Boston, if you’re not Tom Brady, Larry Bird or Bobby Orr, they’re going to forget about you real fast.”

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