Charlie Bradshaw (football coach)

NFL player


DateOfBirth=1924
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DateOfDeath=June 3, 1999
Deathplace=Montgomery, Alabama
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College=University of Kentucky
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Charlie Bradshaw coached college football at University of Kentucky and later at Troy State University (now Troy University).

At Kentucky Bradshaw inherited a program that had done well under prior coaches Bear Bryant and Blanton Collier but posted a record of 25-41-4 (.386). Bradshaw's 1964 team was ranked #5 in the AP poll after defeating #1 ranked Ole Miss on the road 27-21 and beating Auburn University 20-0 for a 3-0 start, but the squad finished 5-5 after defeating the University of Tennessee in its final game. Bradshaw's 1965 team defeated #10 University of Georgia 28-10 and appeared bound for a bowl game, being ranked in the AP top ten for four weeks in September and November of that season. Bradshaw's wins in 1965 included games at the University of Missouri, which capped the season with a Sugar Bowl victory and #6 national ranking in the final AP poll, an upset of another bowl-bound team from Ole Miss and another win over the University of Georgia. The 1965 team was then set back by star quarterback Rick Norton suffering a broken leg and finished 6-4 and out of bowl contention. The remainder of Bradshaw's tenure at Kentucky was disappointing, although his final team did defeat a University of Missouri team that ended up winning the Gator Bowl and earning a #9 national ranking in the final AP poll; the 1968 Kentucky team also defeated a ranked Oregon State University team. Tackle Herschel Turner (Time), tackle Sam Ball (UPI, NEA, Camp, FWAA-Look, Coaches, Time, Sporting News), halfback Rodger Bird (Time, NBC) and quarterback Rick Norton (Time, NBC) were named First Team All Americans under Bradshaw at Kentucky.

Bradshaw was the coach in 1962 of the infamous Thin Thirty at Kentucky, the team going from 88 players when Bradshaw arrived in January of that year to just 30 by the end of the year. That season is profiled in a book published in August 2007, "The Thin Thirty", by Shannon Ragland.

Bradshaw was the last Kentucky coach to defeat a #1 ranked team (until Rich Brooks led the Wildcats to a victory over LSU in 2007), the last to defeat the University of Tennessee twice in Knoxville, and the last Kentucky coach to post two wins against Auburn University.