2 weeks Ago
In celebration of Black History Month, Kalen Lumpkins and the Post and Courier sports team are celebrating a Black trailblazer in South Carolina sports history each day. There's a first for everything. Some of those firsts just mean a little more than others.
Lindell Bradley played baseball for the University of South Carolina, and was the first Black varsity athlete to don a Gamecock uniform. He held the door open for many Black USC athletes that may have not gotten the opportunity without him. He attended Butler High, an all-Black school, in his hometown of Hartsville, S.
C, where he won a state championship. From there, MLB scouts started his path to South Carolina, and he scored a tryout with the team. He met the SAT score requirements set at the time, and he officially joined the team in 1969.
After a couple years with the team, he opted for education over baseball and graduated with a degree in engineering. This historic moment was temporarily lost in Gamecock history, until April of 2024, when he had the honor of throwing the first pitch in USC's game versus Kentucky. At the game, he told WIS10 that while his career didn't exactly have enough for a highlight reel, he's proud of creating a path for future black athletes.
“The school that I went to is a lot different now; the people make a big difference here,” Bradley said. “There wasn’t a lot of empathy for the problems that I had to deal with as a young student, [but] I think those circumstances have changed.”.
