Bradley Walker

Bradley Walker (October 14, 1877 – February 3, 1951) was a Nashville attorney who, in his youth, was found to be naturally proficient at virtually any sport he tried, including football, baseball, track, boxing, tennis and golf— in all these sports he either set records or won championships or awards.

The Palm of Alpha Tau Omega called Walker "one of the all-time greats in Southern athletic history."

Describing Walker's football ability, celebrated coach John Heisman said, "he was undoubtedly one of the twenty-five best men that Dixieland ever saw".

[1] Walker attended Columbia High School and later graduated from the University of Nashville's Peabody College[a] with a teacher's certificate in 1897.

[3] Walker played at the fullback and tackle positions for the Nashville football team, known as the "Garnet and Blue".

[4] John Heisman, coach of the Auburn team who had defeated Nashville 14 to 4 two weeks later, said Walker was the best football player in the school's history, saying "I have no hesitation whatever in declaring that he was undoubtedly one of the twenty-five best men that Dixieland ever saw".

[4][b] In Heisman's words, "[Walker]... was about 6 feet 3 inches tall and he must have weighed close to 200 pounds even then...our men never seemed to see him coming until he had his gain made and was up at 'em again".

One account of the Sewanee game reads "Bradley Walker, full-back, is the strongest and heaviest player on the team.

[13] Caspar Whitney ranked Walker as perhaps the best player in the South, but said he had been playing football for more than four years if one were to include his time teaching at St. Albans in Radford, and so did not pick him.

[15] The Palm of Alpha Tau Omega described Walker as "one of the all-time greats in Southern athletic history.

Writing in 1950, Nashville Banner sportswriter Bill Ezell said, "[Walker] established a record that hasn't been approached since and probably never will— a batting average of .492 over a two-year period".

This prompted Walker (who came in second) to run again that fall, but this time for the office of commissioner, as an independent candidate in the general election, but lost to John C.

The newspaper account said, "Walker, not only a seasoned golfer of many tournaments' experience, but of athletic competitions of all kinds, bore up under the tension more ably than did the Cherokee [Country Club] finalist".

[34] Walker continued to compete in this same annual tournament for the next 36 years, until 1950, when he was too busy campaigning for political office.

[35] Years later Walker downplayed his state amateur golf victory saying, in effect, that he did not have any skilled young players competing with him back then.

Scottish golfer George Livingstone happened to hear of the situation and immediately applied for the position.

He was a 32nd degree Mason, a member of Eastern Star and served as district governor of the Tennessee Exchange Club.

Walker, c. 1900
1901 Virginia football team
Bradley Walker, ca. 1913