Archie Bradley (4 January 1897 – 27 March 1969) was an Australian professional

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

of the 1920s. Also known as the "Gympie Whirlwind" or the "Gympie Tornado", Archie Bradley was the Australian

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

Champion from 1922 to 1924. At the height of his popularity Bradley was afforded huge publicity with whole pages of magazines and newspapers devoted to his boxing career. It was not uncommon for over 12,000 spectators to fill stadiums in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

to watch him fight. In the 1920s his stamina and athletic ability as both a boxer and a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer became legendary.The Archie Bradley story:the fighting career of Archie Bradley from Gympie, Queensland. Compiled by Keith Parker.

Personal life

Bradley was born at Wickham Street,

Gympie Gympie ( ) is a city and a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. Located in the Greater Sunshine Coast, Gympie is about north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city lies on the Mary River ( ...

, Queensland on 4 January 1897. He was the seventh of 10 children born to John (b. 1860,

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few miles south of the Lake District Lake District National Park, National Park and j ...

) and Minnie Bradley (née Gierke, b. 1866,

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

Career

In September 1917 Bradley had his first professional fight against Joe Healy at the Theatre Royal in Gympie. After 15 rounds the fight was awarded to Healy in a controversial decision. Bradley went on to win 14 fights in Gympie before travelling to Brisbane in 1918, at the age of 21 years, to further his career. In an eight-month period in Brisbane he had seven wins in seven bouts—against boxers such as "Smiling Georgie" Malouf, Roy Hayward, Bert Secombe and Jimmy Hill. After a loss to Silvino Jamito on a foul in the fifth round, he went on to outpoint Eugene Volaire and

knock out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several Contact sports, full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of World Taekwondo Federation#Sparri ...

the famous Eddie Lynch after nine rounds of furious fighting. In August 1921 Bradley beat Sid Godfrey on points. In 1922 he took the welterweight crown from Tommy Uren, and was later described as "probably the greatest fighter to come out of ueensland . He had a break from boxing from August 1925 to September 1926, but was out of form on his return, losing soundly to Jim Cox.

Life after boxing

After his retirement from boxing, Bradley bred greyhounds for racing, and produced champions including "Archie's Wonder", "Bradley's Best", and "Archie's Gift". He also managed a relative of his who was taking up heavyweight boxing, Col Daley, who went undefeated for at least 29 fights. He kept up his associations with the sport until at least the 1950s, attending tournaments at mission stations.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Archie Australian male boxers Australian rugby league players Sportspeople from Gympie 1897 births 1969 deaths Welterweight boxers 20th-century Australian sportsmen