50 Fun Facts About Don Bradman

What was Don Bradman's career Test batting average?

Some call it the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport.

How many runs did Bradman need in his final Test innings to finish with an average of exactly 100?

England collapsed to an innings defeat, so he never got to bat again.

How was Bradman dismissed in his final Test innings at The Oval in 1948?

He pushed forward, was deceived by the wrist-spinner and was bowled between bat and pad for a duck.

In which New South Wales town was Bradman born in 1908?

He was born at the home of a midwife, Granny Scholz, which is now the Bradman Birthplace Museum.

According to Australian folklore, what did the young Bradman use to practise alone against a water tank?

The tank stood on a curved brick stand on a paved area behind the family home in Bowral.

At what age did Bradman score his first century, an unbeaten 115 for Bowral Public School?

He then gave up cricket for tennis for two years before returning in 1925-26.

For which Sydney grade club did Bradman play from 1926-27, travelling 130 km each Saturday?

He made his first-class debut for NSW at the Adelaide Oval the following season, aged 19.

What happened to Bradman after scores of 18 and 1 in his first Test at Brisbane in 1928?

Recalled at Melbourne, he made 79 and 112 to become the youngest player to score a Test century.

What then world-record first-class score did Bradman make against Queensland at the SCG?

He made the runs in only 415 minutes.

How many runs did Bradman score in the 1930 Ashes series in England, still a record for a Test series?

He averaged 139.14 with centuries in every shape and size, and no one has come within 69 runs since.

At which ground did Bradman score his world-record 334 in 1930?

He reached a century before lunch on the first day, matching Victor Trumper and Charlie Macartney.

Which innings did Bradman rate his best, because 'every ball went where it was intended to go'?

Australia won that Second Test to level the series.

What make of car did the sporting goods firm Mick Simmons present to Bradman after the 1930 tour?

They paraded him at receptions in Adelaide, Melbourne, Goulburn, Bowral and Sydney, annoying his teammates.

Which England captain devised the Bodyline tactics to curb Bradman in 1932-33?

He combined leg theory with short-pitched bowling, remembering Bradman's discomfort against bouncers at The Oval in 1930.

Which two Nottinghamshire fast bowlers were the spearheads of Bodyline?

Australia levelled the series once at Melbourne thanks to O'Reilly and Ironmonger, but England took the Ashes.

How was Bradman out first ball in his opening Bodyline Test innings?

He had moved across expecting a bouncer; the ball failed to rise. It was his first Test duck.

Which Australian captain's leaked Bodyline remark said 'only one of them is playing cricket'?

Warner blamed an Australian opener for the leak, who spent decades insisting it was Bradman.

Whom did Bradman marry at Burwood, Sydney, in April 1932?

They had met in 1920 when she boarded with the Bradman family to be closer to school in Bowral.

What nearly killed Bradman at the end of the 1934 tour of England?

Doctors took over 24 hours to diagnose it; peritonitis was usually fatal before penicillin, and his wife sailed for a month to reach him.

What job lured Bradman to move from Sydney to Adelaide in 1934?

Harry Hodgetts offered it if he would captain South Australia; the SA Cricket Association secretly subsidised his wage.

What happened to Harry Hodgetts' firm in June 1945?

Hodgetts went to prison; Bradman took over the client list and old office and carried a stigma in Adelaide business circles for years.

What surprising finding did a routine army medical make about Bradman during World War II?

He was posted as a physical training supervisor at Frankston, but fibrositis invalided him out in June 1941.

What nickname was given to the Australian team Bradman captained on the unbeaten 1948 tour of England?

They won the Ashes 4-0 and nearly 850,000 people watched the Tests.

How many Test centuries did Bradman score in his 80 Test innings?

Sachin Tendulkar needed 148 innings to reach the same number.

In which year was Bradman knighted, becoming the only Australian cricketer ever to receive the honour?

He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia thirty years later.

Which future Test bowler played for Wingello when Bradman made 234 against them as a bush cricketer?

The two later feuded bitterly, and O'Reilly pointedly praised playing under his successor as SA captain instead.

What was Nelson Mandela's first question to an Australian visitor after 27 years in prison?

Malcolm Fraser later gave Mandela a bat signed by Bradman, inscribed to 'a great, unfinished innings'.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's postal address in every capital city is GPO Box what?

It is a tribute to the batting average.

Bradman's grandson Nick made the front page of The Advertiser in 2017 for what?

He had edged out his grandfather's average by a hundredth of a point.

How old was Bradman when he died in February 2001?

Richie Benaud and Governor-General Sir William Deane gave eulogies at the memorial service.

Which Prime Minister called Bradman 'the greatest living Australian' in 1997?

A year later he became the first living Australian on an Australian postage stamp.

What did the Royal Australian Mint issue on the centenary of Bradman's birth in 2008?

After his death the government had already produced a 20-cent coin.

Which Australian singer-songwriter released the song 'Bradman' in 1987?

Decades earlier, Jack O'Hagan's jaunty 'Our Don Bradman' had been recorded in 1930.

Which instrument did Bradman play on several recordings he made in the early 1930s?

One was 'Every Day Is A Rainbow Day For Me' with Jack Lumsdaine.

Where was the museum dedicated to the Don opened in 1989, while its subject was still alive?

He and his wife had returned to Bowral in 1976 to see the new ground named after him.

How many double centuries did Bradman score in the 1930 Test series alone, a feat unmatched since?

No one else has managed three in a single series or 974 runs.

What kind of pitches shaped Bradman's early technique in the Berrima District competition?

The high bounce taught him to play so far back his feet were level with the stumps.

With whom did Bradman share a record 346-run partnership while batting through influenza at Melbourne in 1937?

It is still the highest score by a number seven batsman in Tests.

How many balls did Bradman need to reach 100 for Blackheath against Lithgow in November 1931?

He was also a first-class stalwart from Adelaide.

For how much did a Bradman cap sell at auction on 3 December 2024?

Bradmanesque has become a word in its own right, inside and outside cricket.

Which Australian vice-captain said the team 'could not have played the blind school without Clarrie Grimmett'?

Richardson had preceded Bradman as South Australia's captain.

Into which body was Bradman inducted posthumously as an inaugural member in 2009?

Neville Cardus had already picked him as one of the Six Giants of the Wisden Century in 1963.

By what margin did Bradman's 1948 Australians win the Ashes series in England?

The side went through the whole tour unbeaten, a feat never before accomplished, and Bradman still made 11 centuries despite waning powers.

Only one Australian has been the subject of more biographies than Bradman. Who?

Bradman wrote four books himself, from a 1930 volume of batting hints to his 1958 instructional manual The Art of Cricket.

Bradman's 100th first-class century, in November 1947, came against which touring side?

He was the first non-Englishman to reach the milestone and remains the only Australian to have done so.

Bradman's son John legally changed his surname in 1972 to escape the family name. To what?

He resolved to change it back after his mother's death in 1997, and later became the family's spokesman in defending the Bradman legacy.

Which West Indian did Bradman name to PM John Vorster in 1971 to rebut a slur on black cricketers?

Bradman had helped bring the West Indian to South Australia the previous decade; on his return he persuaded the board to cancel the 1971–72 tour.

Which actor played Bradman in the 1984 television mini-series about the Bodyline tour?

Bradman also played himself on screen once, in the 1936 film The Flying Doctor.

What world-record target did Australia chase down at Headingley in 1948?

Bradman made 173 not out alongside Arthur Morris's 182 on a worn pitch, and the target was reached with 15 minutes to spare.

After retiring from stockbroking in 1954, Bradman chaired which listed investment company for years?

He sat on the boards of 16 public companies, and separately attended an estimated 1,713 South Australian Cricket Association meetings.