STORY: As summer begins and the schools let out for a few months of well-needed vacation, the local sports tend to wind down. While the high schools and other organized sports may be taking a break, The Bradford Era does not. With that in mind, the sports department at The Era is putting a request out to the public.

Do you have an interesting sports-related story that you’d like to see in the paper? We’d like to hear you out. Whether it be a community event, a feature about a club or organization or a story about a prospering local athlete, the sports department is interested in hearing what you have on your mind.

To submit story suggestions, please reach out via email, at hlyle@bradfordera.com, or by calling the sports department directly at 814-362-6531 ext. 135.

SPORTS: With that plea in mind, we looked through the Bradford Landmark Society’s “Barticle” file — an index of sorts for old Bradford Era editions — for some historical information about sports.

On Nov. 21, 1974, 4 Seasons Sports Inc. at 115 Main St. celebrated its grand opening. We don’t remember that one. Readers? That would be the current location of Triple A Nail Salon.

We also found that famous baseball star Rube Waddell was in Bradford to play baseball, but the game was canceled. Instead, he went to Jackson Avenue to try to locate his place of birth, but the landscape had changed and he wasn’t able to find it.

That was in 1907.

He’s been called Baseball’s Most Interesting Man, the Craziest Pitcher of all time and more.

More on him in another column.