Jill Larson Bradney
Born: Wichita, Kansas Graduated: Wichita North High School, 1977 / University of Kansas, 1981
Jill Larson Bradney was never one to let grass grow under her feet.
As a teenager, she was always playing a sport. In fact, at Wichita North High School she played multiple sports, including basketball where she was a state champion and teammate of fellow Kansas Sports Hall of Fame member Lynette Woodard.
In college, Larson Bradney was a three-sport athlete and three-time All-Big Eight Conference performer at Kansas from 1978-81. Bradney played basketball her freshman year before focusing on volleyball (sophomore/junior) and softball. While Bradney enjoyed playing three sports, she dedicated herself to only softball during her senior year at KU.
On the diamond for the Jayhawks, she played third base and pitcher and led her team in six statistical categories, including a .341 career batting average, placing her sixth all-time at Kansas. In 1981, Larson Bradney was the first Jayhawk selected as a first-team All-American by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and, as a senior, was chosen first-team All Region. During this last season at KU, Larson Bradney had 43 hits, 17 runs, four doubles, 17 RBIs, and one home run. That Kansas team won the Big Eight Conference championship.
For her exploits, Larson Bradney has been recognized with her softball No. 22 retired in 2015 by Kansas (one of only four softball numbers to be retired). In 1981 the school inducted her into its athletics hall of fame.
After graduating from Kansas, Bradney became head basketball and softball coach at Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., then moved on to Perry-Lecompton school district, where she taught for 35 years and coached for 37 years.
Bradney started at Perry-Lecompton as an assistant volleyball coach before pioneering the school’s first softball team in 1994. She led Perry-Lecompton to the state playoffs in 2008 and 2017.
Bradney has since retired from the Perry Lecompton school district and spends her time with her husband Ed, their two sons Josh and Tyler and grandchildren Carson and Lauren.
Photo Courtesy of the University of Kansas