When Tim Warsinskey was a cub reporter at Ohio University, he got his first scoop reporting that a young Bob Bradley was named soccer coach. Today, Bradley coaches the U.S. team against Ghana, and Warsinskey is employed at the Plain Dealer.
View full sizeU.S. national soccer coach Bob Bradley got his first coaching job in 1981 at Ohio University, and the story of his hiring was broken by a young reporter just cutting his teeth in journalism, Tim Warsinskey.The 1981 Ohio University soccer team helped launch two careers.
One takes another giant step forward today when coach Bob Bradley leads the U.S. men's soccer team into a World Cup elimination-round game against Ghana in South Africa.
The other, well, let's just say it's a good job and I'm glad to have it.
In spring 1981, I walked into OU's student newspaper, The Post, looking for a job. The sports editor told me, "Find out who the new men's soccer coach is going to be."
I knew a few guys on the team, worked the phones and confirmed, before it was announced, that Bradley was getting the job, his first as a head coach. He was 22. That tiny scoop also got me my first job covering Bradley and the soccer team. I was 19.
Plain Dealer sportswriter Tim Warsinskey"It was a really unique opportunity as a young person, as a young coach, to get that experience," Bradley recently told Ohio Today, an alumni magazine.
He did an outstanding job, especially considering soccer was a non-scholarship sport at OU. Bradley had a warm sense of humor and connected with players on a personal level. He had the presence to gain the respect of veteran players, some of whom were older than him and several of whom were internationals. His best players were from Iran and Lebanon. The Bobcats went 7-4-2, including a stunning 4-3 upset of Ohio State.
One of the reasons Bradley got the job was he came cheap. He had just graduated from Princeton, had no experience and was an OU graduate student. It was an omen. A year later, soccer and tennis were dropped as part of sweeping budget cuts.
"Bob had a real sense of purpose about this game," said OU associate professor Andy Kreutzner, who was an athletic department graduate assistant in 1981. "He was focused, and you had a feeling he was going to make it and do well. Did you think he was going to be the U.S. men's coach? Probably not. But, I would have been shocked if he had made it in anything other than soccer."
Bradley then was hired as an assistant coach by Virginia head coach Bruce Arena, who also went on to be the U.S. men's coach in 2002 and 2006. Bradley's career took off from there.
"It would have been nice to stay as far as having an opportunity to build a program," Bradley said upon his departure from Athens in 1982.
If he had, he might not be in South Africa coaching the Americans today.