Who was the man who engineered this championship? His son, Gen. Roger Brady (ret.), recalls his dad's career as a football coach in the 1940's and 50's.
Dad reminisced often regarding the 1947 championship team. Though he was successful in coaching jobs thereafter, the experience with the championship team of 1947 was the highlight of his professional coaching life. I was only a year old at the time, so I have no actual remembrance of the time in Okmulgee, but I have heard enough stories to almost feel as if I experienced it.
I've not thought about it a lot lately, but I recall Dad telling the story of the championship game. In that telling, the Okmulgee team was much smaller and actually much younger than the Frederick team. He told of how many of the Frederick players were young men who had returned from military service in WWII to complete their high school educations. Some even wore beards and seemed to be larger, stronger and in every way more mature than the boys from Okmulgee. All this, against seemingly overwhelming odds, made the victory all the more meaningful to him. As an aside, Dad was given a new Buick as a gift or award in recognition of the championship. He was proud of the young men who made up his team, and he kept up with them for many years thereafter.
My brother, Mark, was born during Mom and Dad's earlier tenure in Okmulgee, before the war. During the war, Dad was in the Navy. Typical of his approach to life, he wanted to be where the action was and continually volunteered for sea duty. Interestingly, although he was only in his 30's he was considered too old for sea duty. It really irked him. So, unable to go to sea, he coached football as part of a training program at Moffett Field in California. He always felt he was doing the best he could to support the war effort by instilling the discipline and fortitude that would be needed in young men who would go to sea. My sister, Beth, was born in Palo Alto, California, during their tour in California.
Following the championship year at Okmulgee, Dad moved the family to Enid where he coached for three years and won a district championship. He received a set of golf clubs from the community, for which he was very grateful. He then moved on to Elk City where he coached for six years or more. Mark was the star quarterback on several of the Elk City teams and went on to become a world class athlete in track and field at the University of Oklahoma. My sister was a star basketball player in Elk City. Dad loved to elevate the visibility and capability of his teams by scheduling the top teams in the state, often from much larger schools. His team was often defeated in those match-ups, but he strongly believed you got better by playing the best teams.
There were district championships along the way, as I recall, and we then moved on to his last coaching assignment in Sapulpa. Those years were not very successful in terms of wins and losses, but he developed several All-state players, one of whom was Player of the Year and another who was the most valuable player of the Oklahoma All-Star game.
Dad's coaching hero was Paul "Bear" Bryant whom he had met which coaching in the program Bryant started in the Navy. He also enjoyed friendship with Bud Wilkinson, the famous Oklahoma Sooners' coach, and occasionally had him come speak to his teams about winning and being successful in life. Nobody ever loved winning or hated losing more than Ed Brady, but he also saw himself as a teacher of young men, preparing them for life beyond the sports fields.
My brother played several years for Dad at Elk City. I did not, as he retired before my sophomore year in high school. That saved me from the grueling practices, but provided no escape from post-game discussions that could be...let's say, intense. When I was very young I would attend his practices after school. I remember that everybody was treated the same, from the best player to the least gifted. On one occasion in a scrimmage a future All-Stater and Division I university football player was tackled hard by a second-stringer. The star, with whom we were all very impressed, was incensed and kicked the second-stringer as he got up from the pile. Dad stopped the scrimmage, pulled the star player to the side, had a brief chat with him and directed him to run 100 yard sprints up and down the field for the remainder of the practice. I am sure nobody on the practice field that day has forgotten that event--I know I have not. The worst infraction you could commit around Ed Brady was to give him the impression you considered yourself special or thought the rules did not apply to you. I once asked him how one of his star players, a particular hero of mine, was doing. The answer was brief. "He's starting to believe his press clippings."
He loved to teach and to demonstrate techniques--he in shorts and a tee shirt going full speed with the team in helmet and pads. One day he was playing quarterback. While throwing a pass his wrist came down on the helmet of a rushing defensive lineman, shattering the bone. To everyone else it was a big deal. To Dad it was just another day at the office.
Dad retired from coaching in about 1960 and entered the world of investments and mutual funds. In 1961, he was injured in a very serious automobile accident and was hospitalized for several months. He recovered his mobility, but lived in considerable pain for the rest of his life as a result of the injuries he experienced.
In 1962, we moved to Midwest City. I was about to be a junior in high school about this time. I don't remember why we actually moved, but Dad was insistent I go to Midwest City High School because they were recognized as having the best football teams in the state at the time. He wanted me to play for the Bombers, and I did. The move also put him closer to the center of business activity in Oklahoma City, and it didn't hurt that it made it more convenient for him to attend every Oklahoma Sooner football game. He went to every home game, and every game against Texas in Dallas until almost the very end of his life. And you can believe he "coached" every down!!
Life in the Brady household was all about football, school and church--all pursued with equal religious fervor. If you brought home all A's and one B, the ensuing discussion would be about the B. Dad was tough--period. Mom kept life in perspective and smoothed off the rough edges. They were both children of the Great Depression and the second world war--hardworking, strong in religious faith, committed to education, highly principled and both proud and demanding of their children. We three are all retired now from rewarding careers--Beth from elementary education, Mark from counseling in the Veterans' Administration, and me from the United States Air Force. We're all in pretty good health, enjoying children and grandchildren and looking forward to whatever is ahead in life.
Some years after his retirement from active coaching, Dad was inducted into the Oklahoma High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. It was a recognition of which he was immensely proud.
He died in 1988 at the age of 84. Mom moved to Waco, Texas, near Beth, and died in 2003 at the age of 95.
Here is the remembrance of Coach Brady as written by Andy Musgrave:
I have always had a great deal of admiration for Coach Brady. I played football for him starting in Spring Practice of my sophomore year continuing through my senior year and two years of baseball. After that, I played two years of football and baseball at Northeastern Oklahoma A and M and 2 years of football and baseball at Southeastern State College. I have always said Coach Brady was the best coach of all I played under.
Coach Brady was strict, tough, disciplined and fair. His training rules were very brief and simple. He said we could do anything we saw him do. Of course, he didn't smoke, drink, do drugs (this was not even a concern in those days), stay out late at night or cuss (maybe an occasional slip of the tongue).
Strict:
I talked back to Coach only one time. We were practicing on covering punts. As the end, I was to make sure the returner did not get to the outside. As I ran straight down the field, the ball took an extreme bounce toward the sideline, the punt returner picked it up and ran outside me all the way. The coach yelled at me for letting it happen. I said, "How was I supposed to know it was going to bounce that way"? He said, "Get on that track and start running". My back up, Julian Norris, took my place and let the same thing happen. Coach sent him to the track to run. The 3rd back up, Jim Nay, as soon as the ball was punted, headed straight for the sideline making it impossible for the runner to get outside him. The Coach thought that was funny and laughed.
Tough:
In the 2nd game of the season which we lost to Will Rogers, I was thrown a pass and just as I touched the ball, the defensive back smashed into me , helmet to my face (we had no face masks in those days) and I dropped the ball. This happened to me several times. My nose was bleeding and broken but I never left the ballgame. We lost 0-14. On the way home, we stopped for dinner in Sapulpa and my place at the table was directly across from Coach. My nose was bloody and the only thing he said to me was, "You ought to put a band-aid on that". It was his custom before each game, after we had suited up, to have a meeting in the dressing room in which he called each starter up to the front and said a few words of instruction and encouragement to each starter personally. When he called me up for the game following the Will Rogers game, he told me, "I know you had a little bad luck last week getting your nose hurt and dropping some passes but you better not drop any tonight". I didn't. I caught 5 passes, one of them being a touchdown.
Disciplined:
Sometime on the week-end before either the Wewoka or Ponca City play-off game (I don't remember which), Louis James, our All-State running back, best passer, punter, extra point kicker and kicker, did something wrong (I don't know what it was) and the Coach dismissed him from the team. When the team found out about it, our morale was mighty low at Monday's practice. There was no way we could have won without Louis. During the practice, Louis and his Dad showed up and wanted to talk to Coach. After they talked, Coach told us Louis wanted to talk to the team. He apologized to the team and shed a few tears. Afterward, Coach told us it was up to the team if we wanted to take him back. The Coach left and we voted. It goes without saying the vote was a unanimous yes.
Fair:
After the Championship game, the city took up a collection and sent the team to the Delta Bowl Football game in Memphis. We stayed the night before and the night after in a hotel in Little Rock. As we were loading the bus to return home, we had a few minutes and I went into a pawn shop to look for a used pocket watch since I had to have a watch chain to display the gold football we had been awarded. I found a watch I liked and paid $20 and went directly to the bus. I was showing the watch to the assistant coach when all of a sudden, the pawn shop owner appeared on the bus, took the watch, said I had stolen it and started to leave the bus. Coach Brady, near the front of the bus, hearing the commotion, stood up in the aisle and blocked the pawn shop owner and said, "What's going on?" The pawnshop owner said I had stolen the watch. I said, "I paid you $20 for that watch". He said, "You took 2 watches and only paid for 1". Coach said, I don't know what happened to your other watch but I know this boy didn't steal it. Now, give his watch to him and get off the bus" I was embarrassed but so proud that the Coach had enough faith in me to do that. Over the years, I have come to really appreciate what he did. (And, I really did not steal that watch)
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