Terry Bradshaw

Football Player

• Born: September 2, 1948
• Place of Birth: Shreveport, Louisiana

SPORT: Football

Early Life

Terry Paxton Bradshaw was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, about twenty miles from the Texas border, to Bill and Novis Bradshaw on September 2, 1948. Ranching and farming were what most people in that section of the Bible Belt did, and the Bradshaws were no exception. Terry grew up as the second of three sons in a strong Southern Baptist home, and he learned early the value of hard work and religion in everything he pursued. His father ran a strict household with a curfew and regular Bible readings. Terry, his older brother Gary, and his younger brother Craig were taken to Christian revival meetings by their mother. Terry was “witnessing” from the age of fifteen.

The Road to Excellence

After spending a large portion of his boyhood throwing footballs at tires and buckets, Terry achieved celebrity status early as a star quarterback and record-setting javelin thrower at Shreveport’s Woodlawn High School. During his sophomore and junior years at Woodlawn, he spent most of his time on the bench, but after becoming a starting quarterback in his senior season, Terry led his team to an 8-1-1 record and the semifinals of the Louisiana high school championship playoffs. Many colleges, however, sought Terry for track and field after he established a new American high school record with a javelin throw of 244 feet, 11 inches. Not wanting to stray too far from home and deciding to concentrate on football, Terry traveled just eighty miles east to Louisiana Tech University for college. His football success there, where he completed 52 percent of his passes for approximately 7,000 yards and forty-two touchdowns, gained Terry national attention. He was named Associated Press First Team All-American as a senior. When he was the first college player selected in the 1970 NFL draft, by the Pittsburgh Steelers, he became nationally famous overnight.

The move from Shreveport to Pittsburgh proved drastic for Terry. Having never ventured into the East, Terry was forced to adapt his simple country ways and his strict Baptist beliefs to conform to the sophistication of a large city. He also shouldered a great deal of pressure immediately. The Steelers had not won any sort of championship in the team’s thirty-five years in the NFL. In 1969, the season before Terry arrived, the Steelers finished with a 1-13 record. Terry was portrayed as a magician with a strong arm who could turn the team into Super Bowl champions.

The Emerging Champion

Terry did possess a strong arm and a desire to succeed as a professional athlete. In his rookie season, though, he completed only 38.1 percent of his 218 passes. He threw for just six touchdowns and was intercepted twenty-four times—hardly a magical debut. Still, the Steelers finished 5-9, the team’s best showing since 1966. Discouraged by his rookie performance, Terry returned to the comfort of Louisiana after the season, and with the support of family and friends, he pulled himself together.

Terry returned to Pittsburgh in his second season and completed 203 of 373 passes for 2,259 yards and thirteen touchdowns. His performance slipped slightly in 1972, however, and he suffered a shoulder separation in 1973, which caused him to miss four games in the middle of the season. His troubles continued in 1974, when he lost his starting job to third-year man Joe Gilliam. Terry won back his starting job midway through the season, though, and he led Pittsburgh to its first NFL Championship with a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX. The next year, with Terry throwing eighteen regular-season touchdown passes, the Steelers repeated as champions, defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in Super Bowl X.

Continuing the Story

Terry led the Pittsburgh Steelers to two more Super Bowl titles, in 1979, with a 35-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, and in 1980, with a 31-19 win over the Los Angeles Rams. He was a perfect 4-0 in Super Bowl games. He completed forty-nine of eighty-four pass attempts, nine for touchdowns, and threw only three interceptions in those four memorable performances. He established Super Bowl passing records for the longest average gain in a career, 11.10 yards, and the longest average gain in a game, 14.71 in Super Bowl XIV, when he completed twenty-one passes for 309 yards. He was named NFL Player of the Year by the Associated Press, Sport magazine, and the Maxwell Club of Philadelphia following the 1978 season. In 1979, he shared Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award with another notable Pittsburgher, the Pirates’ Willie Stargell. Terry retired from football just before the 1984 NFL season. In 1989, as one of the most productive quarterbacks of all time, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Terry’s life outside of football was as dramatic as life on the playing field. Married four times, he enjoyed a short career as a country and Western singer and even acted in a movie with Burt Reynolds (Hooper, 1978). Terry never strayed too far from the things he loved. He worked as a television analyst of NFL games for Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) Sports and spent several years in an acclaimed partnership with play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist. Terry also appeared on The Super Bowl Today and The NFL Today. In 1993, Terry became a “talking head” on Fox NFL Sunday and continues to hold that position.

In addition to his NFL analysis job for Fox, Terry owned a NASCAR team, FitzBradshaw Racing. In 2005, he expressed interest in purchasing the New Orleans Saints after the natural disaster Hurricane Katrina, but the Saints franchise was not for sale.

Terry had many cameos in television shows and commercials, including Everybody Loves Raymond, The Last Man Standing, and The Jeff Foxworthy Show. In addition to his work on television, Terry has been in several movies, including Cannonball Run, Smokey and the Bandit II, Father Figures, and Failure to Launch. In Failure to Launch, Terry appeared naked in a scene. His family was the focus of the reality show The Bradshaw Bunch (2020–2022). However, the show could not be renewed for a third season in 2023 because of Bradshaw's health. He announced in 2022 that he was battling bladder and neck cancer. Terry has also been candid about his struggles with mental illness, sharing his story in the hopes that it helps others who suffer from depression and anxiety.

Terry was the first NFL player to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2007, the Pittsburgh Steelers celebrated the franchise’s seventy-fifth season in the NFL, and Terry was named to the Steelers’ all-time team. He won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio, and Sports Event Analyst three times during his broadcasting career. In 2019, he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Summary

Terry Bradshaw was a more complex athlete and person than he was perceived to be early in his career. His strong and accurate arm produced unprecedented results. He was among the first NFL quarterbacks to call his own offensive plays in the huddle and to use the “audible” with effectiveness, proving repeatedly his game sense and competence. He persevered through numerous painful injuries, including dislocated fingers, a fractured nose, a broken collarbone and ribs, a torn hip muscle, and a sprained knee. In fact, Terry played almost the entire 1977 season with a fractured bone in his left wrist. He produced in “clutch” situations and was instrumental in breathing new life into a dismal Pittsburgh Steelers franchise. The Steelers were the first team to win four Super Bowls, and a great deal of credit for those victories belongs to Terry.

Bibliography

Aaseng, Nathan. Football’s Winning Quarterbacks. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1980.

Abrams, Brett L. Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.

Bradshaw, Terry, and David Fisher. It’s Only a Game. Gallery Books, 2011.

Bradshaw, Terry, and David Fisher. Keep It Simple. Atria, 2014.

Bradshaw, Terry, and Buddy Martin. Looking Deep. Contemporary, 1989.

McCullough, Bob. My Greatest Day in Football: The Legends of Football Recount Their Greatest Moments. Thomas Dunne, 2001.

"Terry Bradshaw Bio." Fox Sports, www.foxsports.com/personalities/terry-bradshaw/bio. Accessed 20 June 2024.

"Terry Bradshaw." Steelers, www.steelers.com/history/bios/bradshaw‗terry. Accessed 20 June 2024.

Whiting, Jim. The Story of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Creative Education, 2020.