PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BRADLEY HAS LOCAL CONNECTION

From left: Bill Bradley, Jim Dodd and Steve Trautwein.

Crystal City considers Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley its hometown hero.

But Bradley also has ties to Cape Girardeau. Growing up in Crystal City, he regularly visited relatives in Cape Girardeau.

Dr. David Crowe, a local dentist, is a first cousin of Bradley. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle is a step-first cousin.

Crowe's father, John, was Bradley's uncle. Swingle's stepfather, Howard Crowe, was also an uncle to Bradley. Both John and Howard Crowe were brothers of Bradley's mother.

Bill Bradley and his parents frequently traveled to Cape Girardeau to visit relatives.

David Crowe remembers Bradley's visits to the Crowe home on Henderson Street. "He would come down for family outings and he would shoot hoops with all the kids," said Crowe. "When Bill was in town, he always drew a crowd."

Around the family, he was "very warm, very funny," said Crowe, who last saw him in February. Crowe picked him up at the St. Louis airport and drove him to a speaking engagement at Rolla.

Bradley wasn't a class clown. He studied hard and played hard. "He would always say his prayers before he went to bed," said Crowe.

Growing up, Crowe would spent a week every summer with the Bradleys in Crystal City.

"I would take the bus from Cape Girardeau to Crystal City. The last summer I did that he was in training for the Olympics in 1964."

He spent a lot of time in the Crystal City gym catching basketballs as Bradley pumped them through the net.

Crowe remembers his Aunt Susie, Bill's mother, fondly. She died Nov. 30, 1995.

"Whenever you were around his mom, she made you feel like you were the most important kid in the world."

Bill loved basketball. He starred on Crystal City High School's basketball team in the early 1960s. In his senior year, he carried the team to a second-place finish in the state.

During the season, Bradley scored 39 points in the first half of a Crystal City victory over Cape Girardeau Central High School at the old Central gym.

A three-time All-American at Princeton, Bradley delayed his professional basketball career to spend two years at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship.

He then joined the NBA's New York Knicks. He played on their 1970 and 1973 championship teams.

In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey. He served in the Senate for 18 years.

"He was the All-American boy in the truest sense," said Crowe, who was in elementary school when Bradley was in high school.

When Bradley graduated from college in 1965, Crystal City celebrated the college star's success, holding its first Bill Bradley Day. Crowe, then 13, rode with the guest of honor in the parade.

Forty years later, Bradley is returning home Wednesday for another celebration. This time he will kick off his presidential campaign in front of Crystal City High School.

Job commitments will keep Crowe and Swingle from joining in the festivities. But both men said they would be thinking about Bradley.

Swingle remembers watching Bradley score 20 points for the Knicks in a win over the San Francisco Warriors at the old St. Louis Arena on Dec. 13, 1970.

Swingle, who is conservative politically, doesn't always agree with Bradley on the issues.

But Swingle said he has always admired Bradley's intelligence and integrity. Swingle compared Bradley to George Washington.

"This is a man like Washington that the rest of us can regard with awe and respect."

Crowe said Bradley's character is linked with growing up in a small Missouri town. Crystal City had a population of about 4,000 people.

Bradley has a reputation for being frugal that would have made his late father, Warren, proud. Warren Bradley was president of Crystal City's only bank.

After Crowe graduated from college in 1973, he and his famous cousin took a trip through Canada and then flew back to New York.

At the time, Bradley was the highest paid forward in the National Basketball Association.

"I was just out of college with no job," he said.

When they arrived at the airport, Bradley offered to buy dinner if Crowe paid for the cab ride.

Cape Girardeau resident Jim Limbaugh was senior class president in 1972 at Central High School. He was charged with finding a commencement speaker.

Thanks to Crowe's help, Bradley spoke at the high school graduation ceremony.

At the June commencement at Houck Stadium, Bradley urged Limbaugh and the other graduating seniors to "continually explore the contours of their minds."

Earlier in the day, Bradley told reporters in Cape Girardeau that he was considering trading his pro-basketball career for a career in politics.

"I always said that I would play basketball until I find something else that holds more interest for me. At this point, politics are becoming more interesting," he said.

If you ask Crowe and Swingle, those words from their famous cousin still hold true 27 years later.