Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (born 1943) was a basketball star in high school. He was offered 75 college scholarships, but declined them all to attend Princeton. While at Princeton, he won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the the U.S. basketball team in the 1964 Olympics. After graduation, he attended Oxford for two years on a Rhodes scholarship. In 1967, he joined the New York Knicks basketball team.
The photo above, by LIFE photographer John Zimmerman, shows Bradley in the Knicks locker room in December, 1967, being interviewed by reporters. As we've mentioned before, in those days players were casual about being naked in the locker room, even with reporters and photographers around. Note another naked player in the shower room in the background.
As a basketball star and a Rhodes scholar, Bradley proved that it's possible to be a jock and have brains, too. These first three photos are all from a 1967 LIFE photo set by John Zimmerman. None of them were published in the magazine.
In this third Zimmerman photo, we get a glimpse of what looks like little Bill peeking out from behind Bradley's towel. Bradley played for the Knicks for ten years, retiring in 1977. Then he ran for and was elected U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He served three terms as a Democratic Senator, 1979-1997.
How many other U.S. Senators have you seen naked? Here's Scott Brown in a Cosmopolitan centerfold in 1982. He was a Republican Senator from Massachusetts from 2010 to 2013.
5 comments:
When did the nudity end in sports teams' locker rooms? When they began allowing female reporters in?
Quite some time ago, I can't say when, I did a post on politicians that have posted nude.
very nice!!!
Yes. From what I remember, some of the same female reporters who demanded to be allowed in, objected to the men' s being naked. Some of the players were irked because, as one pointed out, our wives are not allowed in, why should female reporters be? I understand that now, most teams don't actually allow women into the area where the men shower, but have "interview" areas where the men are covered. Incidentally, I think male reporters are still banned from women's locker rooms.
And then you have guys like Gronk.
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