Don Bradman was an Australian cricketer and actor, generally regarded as the greatest batsman of all time. He played Test cricket for 20 years and retired in 1948. He scored 6996 runs in 52 Test matches and had a batting average of 99.94. This average was cited as the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport, derived from the research done by a statistician named Charles Davis.
Born Name
Donald George Bradman
Nick Name
The Don, Braddles, The Boy from Bowral, The White Headley
Don Bradman as seen in January 1930 (State Library of South Australia / Flickr / CC BY-2.0)
Age
Don Bradman was born on August 27, 1908.
Died
Don Bradman died on February 25, 2001, aged 92, at his home in Kensington Park, South Australia, Australia, after his health worsened following hospitalization with pneumonia in December 2000.
Sun Sign
Virgo
Born Place
Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality
Education
He attended Bowral Public School in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia.
After graduating, he enrolled in Bowral High School in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia.
Occupation
Cricketer, Actor
Family
Father – George Bradman
Mother – Emily (née Whatman) Bradman
Siblings – Elizabeth May Bradman (Sister), Lilian Bradman (Sister), Islet Bradman (Sister), Victor Bradman (Brother)
Others – Paul Bradman (Nephew), Charles Andrew Bradman (Paternal Grandfather)
Batting
Right-Handed
Bowling
Right-Arm Leg Break
Role
Batsman
Build
Average
Height
5 ft 7 in or 170 cm
Weight
80 kg or 176.5 lbs
Don Bradman as seen in 1932 (State Library of New South Wales / Flickr / Public Domain)
Girlfriend / Spouse
Don Bradman had dated –
Jessie Martha Menzies (1920-1997) – He met Jessie when she moved to attend a school in Bowral, New South Wales, in 1920. They married at St Paul’s Anglican Church at Burwood, Sydney, New South Wales. The couple had 3 children, the 1st of which died as an infant in 1936. Their 2nd child, John Bradman, born in 1939, contracted polio disease, and their daughter, Shirley Bradman, born in 1941, suffered from cerebral palsy from birth. Don’s relationship with his son was strained and he legally changed his name to John Bradsen in 1972. After the death of Jessie in 1997 from cancer at the age of 88, Don and John reconciled, and John changed his last name back to Bradman. Don had 3 grandchildren through his son, named Nicholas, Greta, and Tom.
Race / Ethnicity
White
He was of English descent on both his maternal and paternal side.
Hair Color
Gray
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Don Bradman as seen in 1928 (Leski / /www.leski.com.au / Public Domain)
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
Dimpled smile
Dimpled chin
Religion
Protestantism
Don Bradman during a match as seen in 1946 (Fairfax Media / Getty Images / Public Domain)
Don Bradman Facts
The story of his beginnings is considered a part of Australian folklore. He invented his own cricket game, using a golf ball and a cricket stump as a replacement for a bat. He would use a water tank behind his family home to throw the ball that would rebound at different speeds and angles, and try to hit it again.
People coined the term “Bradmanesque” for outstanding excellence, used even outside of cricket.
Queen Elizabeth II awarded Don with Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), on June 16, 1979, giving him the right to carry the title of “Sir” in front of his name.
Don considered trademarking his name in 1991 to prevent abuse. When he tried, he found out it was already registered for use on a beer bottle. After he died, his organization, Bradman Foundation, which had a license for his name, sold it to a biscuit company, Unibic.
His son stated that Don would not have approved Bradman Foundation drawing money from federal funding to become the International Cricket Hall of Fame. Don always wanted his Bradman Museum to be a small entity for devoted fans to visit.
His batting average was 100 but in his last Test match against England on August 14, 1948, he got out on 0, so his final batting average before retiring dropped to 99.94.
Don scored 29 centuries in 80 Test innings, which was a rate of more than 1 century every 3 innings. Only 11 players managed to pass his total, albeit no one at such a rapid rate. The next fastest player was Sachin Tendulkar, for whom it took 148 innings to reach 29 centuries.
A statistician named Charles Davis made an analysis of several best sportsmen in all major sports. He compared the number of standard deviations that stood above the average for athlete’s given sport. Charles concluded that “no other athlete dominates an international sport to the extent that Bradman does cricket.”
On the 100th anniversary of his birth, on August 27, 2008, Australia’s government released a postal stamp in his honor.
In 1937, Bradman had reversed the batting order of Australia’s second innings in 3rd Test match of the Ashes series so as to prevent batters from the wet field. He scored 270 runs while batting at #7 which is still a record as no other Test player has ever scored 270 or more runs while batting at number 7.
Featured Image by Fairfax Media / Getty Images / Public Domain
