He spent 30 years as sports editor and writer at the Nevada Daily Mail and was also a lifelong member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Bradham was an avid sports fan, especially of football and baseball.

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I never actually got the chance to know Kelly, but numerous people around the community and around the newspaper have been very obviously affected by the loss of a true icon. Another former Daily Mail sports editor, Joe Warren, said of Bradham, "To know Kelly was to know one of the most stubborn people in the world. His ways were pretty set, and you could take him or leave him."

But Warren and Bradham became fast friends, and Warren's own tribute to Bradham appears on Page 10 of today's Nevada Daily Mail along with the thoughts of Nevada High School Athletic Director Kevin McKinley.

According to longtime friend Richard Carpenter, Kelly Bradham was a truly avid fan of Nevada athletics and was a very highly respected, though often argumentative individual. Bradham was known as the kind of true sports fan who would argue any point that could be made about a sport.

He was especially passionate about baseball. According to Carpenter, Bradham could make an argument over who was the best player at a given position one day and be on the other side the next.

But even though Bradham had a true love for major league baseball -- even going so far as to travel to every major league stadium in a single season -- Nevada High School sports always came first. "He wasn't a great athlete. But when it came to Crimson and Gray, he bled crimson," Carpenter said.

Former Nevada football coach John McKinley also spoke very highly of Bradham.

McKinley said that Bradham was a great sports fan and would spend a good part of his time just talking about football with the coaches, "not just like a kid talking football with a coach."

He had numerous opportunities to go elsewhere -- even to follow and cover professional sports exclusively -- but still stayed in Nevada. "He was a hometown boy first, sports writer second," McKinley said.

Bradham was a great friend to the coaches and the community whom I honestly wish I could have known. He was very positive, but at the same time honest in his writing, never singling any one player out for a bad performance but never sugar-coating or holding back any warranted criticisms of a team as a whole.

But there was more to Kelly Bradham than simply sports. "He just loved conversing with anyone with anybody who would oblige him," Warren said.

Carpenter related a story from his and Bradham's teenage years together in which they and a few of their friends would sneak into drive-in movies with Bradham driving his family's old station wagon with one friend in the front seat next to him and Carpenter -- along with one or two others -- covered by a blanket in the back seat.

According to McKinley, Bradham had an extensive collection of World War II artifacts and was an expert on the war, especially the battles. Bradham was also a big fan of former Alabama Governor George Wallace.

During their travels together, McKinley said, he would take along his tapes of speeches made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and play them just loud enough to be heard while he and Bradham were sitting and talking, just to get a reaction. Bradham always gave the reaction that McKinley was looking for, which turned out to be one of the fondest -- and funniest -- memories that McKinley still holds of him.

McKinley also said that Bradham was a great conversationalist and story teller, taking every opportunity to relate memories that he had of traveling with the Kansas City Royals and his experiences here in Nevada.

Bradham had been battling long term complications complications stemming from a liver transplant that he had six years ago, and never really recovered from. He developed diabetes and was on kidney dialysis, eventually becoming an amputee, losing an arm and a few fingers.

After spending significant amounts of time in nursing homes, Bradham was transferred to the University of Kansas Medical Center, suffering from dehydration and malnourishment.

Upon transfer, his condition never really improved, and doctors finally made the decision to cut off life support at 5:30 Tuesday afternoon.

Bradham died an hour later, and a funeral has been scheduled for 10:30 Monday morning, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Nevada.