Bradley Central High School, located in Cleveland Tennessee is a National School of Excellence which also carries right over into BCHS athletic programs. The rich history of young men and women competing in individual and team sports is extremely evident when one walks through the hall way of the athletic complex housing the gymnasium, locker rooms and the many displays of trophies which validate the excellence in athletic performance.

The Jim Smiddy Arena is a basketball gym dedicated to the basketball coach with the winningest record at any level in the history of the sport. Going into the 1992-93 season Coach Smiddy had won an amazing 1,189 games and lost only 200. As head coach of the Bradley Central Bearettes, Smiddy won five state champion- ships (1962, 1970, 1973, 1975, and 1976) and two national titles in 1975 and 1976. He appeared in the state tournament twenty-one times. A native of Jellico, Tennessee, Smiddy grew up in Williamsburg, Kentucky, and graduated from Williamsburg High School. He attended college in Williamsburg at Cumberland College and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1948. He started his coaching career at Stair Tech in Knoxville under Ed Osborne, and he began his onslaught on the record books in 1949, when he became head girls' basketball coach at Charleston High School. He remained at Charleston for nine years and then took over the Bradley Central program. Smiddy, who also held a master's degree from UT, was a member of both the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the National High School Sports Hall of Fame before his death.

Jimmie Lovell field in Bear Stadium is a highly regarded gridiron football field. The field is always maintained and groomed to perfection. The stadium holds several thousand individuals who converge on it to watch the Bradley Bears win every Friday night home game in the fall. One needs to show up early to get a good seat as the stadium almost always fills to capacity. The bears have several players who have gone on to higher level of playing and coaching in collegiate and professional football.