Super Bill or Adrian Peterson

Super Bill or Adrian Peterson? No question.
Bradley was best athlete ever produced by Palestine.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
 
Somebody posed the question this week: Who's the best athlete to come out of Palestine?

Adrian Peterson or Bill Bradley?

That's no contest. Bradley wins hands down.

Don't get bogged down in who had the best college career or whose professional career will end with more Pro Bowls and that kind of thing. Or that Bradley wasn't always the happiest-go-lucky of guys or that he had a bent toward the unconventional.

Bradley was the best athlete Palestine ever produced. Heck, he might be the best high school athlete any town ever produced.

Back in the mid-1960s, when he was guiding Palestine to the Class 3A football title (there was no 5A in those days), "Super Bill" was an all-world quarterback. He was the leading scorer and probably rebounder on the basketball team, anchored the sprint relay team, high-jumped 6-foot-6, won the long jump with some ridiculous number and still had time to be an all-everything baseball player the rest of the week.

There was nothing the guy couldn't do on a field or a court. He punted — as he did at the University of Texas — with either leg. He played flawless shortstop in baseball and parked his Mustang with the UT-10 license plate right up next to the fence like he didn't care if the window got busted or not.

I was a sophomore at Carthage High School when Bradley was a Palestine senior, and everyone — coaches, players, scouts — was in awe of the guy. He was able to pick up a team and carry it to a win, over and over.

We weren't very good in the fall of 1964, his senior year, but somehow mustered the gumption to play our best game of the year against them in Carthage. Palestine won 16-7, I think, as Bradley accounted for most of their offense.

Nobody knew until later but he hurt his right hand, a broken bone of some kind, in that game against Carthage and couldn't grip to throw with it. The next week, he passed left-handed.

All due respect to Adrian Peterson, but unless he starts gaining 200 yards sideways or on his hands, game over.

—Mike Leggett

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