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The Honorable Tom Bradley, Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, and Mega Genius^®

Tom Bradley served five terms as Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, California, from 1973 – 1993, the longest tenure by any mayor in the city’s history.

The grandson of former slaves, and the son of sharecroppers on public assistance, Tom was raised in Texas, in a log cabin, where he picked cotton as a child.

As a teenager, Tom starred in both football and track, and entered UCLA on a track scholarship, but then, having scored near the top of a police recruitment exam, dropped out during his senior year to attend the Los Angeles Police Academy, in 1940.  He soon became the first African American police officer in Los Angeles to hold the rank of Lieutenant.  While on the force, he studied at night, received his law degree, and later passed his bar exam.

Tom was the first black person elected to the Los Angeles City Council, on which he served from 1963 – 1972.  Tom, however, saw it differently.  As he explained, “I’m not a black this or a black that.  I’m just Tom Bradley.”

Among many significant accomplishments, he is remembered for transforming the Los Angeles Skyline, bringing new businesses to the city, and improving the Los Angeles International Airport.

In addition, during his record 20-year tenure as Mayor, in the summer of 1984 -- soon after the massive cost overruns of the 1976 Summer Olympics, in Montreal, Canada -- Los Angeles celebrated the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, which Tom Bradley was instrumental in bringing to the city.  Only the 1932 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles, had ever shown a profit.  In the face of wide-ranging criticism, Mayor Bradley had insisted that he could ensure that the 1984 Summer Olympics would actually make money.  Many observers, including seasoned politicians, thought he was wrong, and that it was just a question of how much money would be lost.

In fact, the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, that Tom Bradley brought to Los Angeles, resulted in a profit of well over $200 million.

That same year, 1984, the Tom Bradley International Terminal, which is served by 34 airlines and handles 10 million passengers per year, at Los Angeles International Airport, was named in his honor.

Tom Bradley was offered a cabinet-level position in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, which he declined.  In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale seriously considered Tom Bradley for the vice presidential nomination.

Tom Bradley was the first African American to head a gubernatorial ticket, when he ran for Governor of California, in 1982.  Although The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and some ABC news affiliates projected that Bradley would win, he lost by less than one percent of the 7.5 million votes cast.  If he was disappointed, you could not tell by his stoic demeanor, which had long before earned him the nickname “the Sphinx of City Hall.”  (Anytime that he frowned or smiled, you knew that he meant it.)

In 1986, after he lost the governorship a second time, he merely said, “Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.”

Tom often quipped that he never looked back.  In 1994, after he had retired, he said, “It’s a joy to get up in the morning, walk out to the front yard, pick up the paper and say, ‘Oh, I don’t give a damn what’s in it.’  I had enough exposure in 20 years to last a lifetime.  If my name was never printed again, it wouldn’t bother me.”

Tom Bradley passed away of a heart attack in 1998, at age 80.

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