Brad Childress Photo Gallery
A native of Misenheimer, Brad Childress arrived at Campbell in 1986 after a standout career at Albemarle High School, where he was selected to play in the North Carolina East-West All-Star Game.
He was a four-year starter at point guard for Coach Billy Lee's Camels from 1986-90. He twice earned Big South all-conference honors during his career and led the team to the 1987 and 1989 league tournament championship games. During his career, Childress set or tied 14 school NCAA Division I era (since 1977-78) records. He remains the only player in school Division I history to total more than 1000 points (1105), 500 assists (543) and 200 steals (243) in his career. He played in all 115 of CU's games from 1986-90 and started all but two and ended his playing days as one of 24 players in school senior college history (since 1961) to score more than 1,000 points. He set the career records for steals and minutes played, and ranks 3rd in assists.
As a freshman, Brad helped lead the Camels to a 17-13 overall record and two victories in the Big South tournament before the Camels fell 64-63 to Charleston Southern in the title contest. During Childress' junior year, the Camels finished 18-12 overall and fell to UNC Asheville in the league title game. The 1988-89 season saw Childress hit career highs with 172 assists and 77 steals en route to earning first-team all-conference honors. Prior to his senior season, Childress was recognized by The Sporting News as one of the nation's best players standing under 5-foot-10. During his senior campaign, he was a second-team all-conference selection after leading CU to a 15-13 record and ranking 2nd among Big South leaders in 3-point field goal percentage, 3rd in steals.
Childress earned a bachelor's in business administration from Campbell in 1990 and a master's in counseling education from Lenoir-Rhyne in 1992.The son of Tom and Judy Childress, Brad followed his father into the coaching ranks as an assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne in 1990. The elder Childress served as head coach for 14 seasons at Pfeiffer College, where he led the Falcons to a pair of regular season titles and one tournament crown and was named Carolinas Conference Coach of the Year on five occasions.
In two seasons, Brad helped the Bears to a pair of 20-win campaigns, two South Atlantic Conference regular season titles and the 1992 SAC tournament crown. He then moved on to Belmont Abbey as an assistant for one year before returning to his alma mater in 1993. During three seasons as an assistant coach at Campbell, Childress helped guide the Camels to the program's first wins over members of the Atlantic Coast (North Carolina State) and Southeastern (South Carolina) conferences, a 20-9 overall record and a berth in the Big South Tournament final in 1994.
Childress also coached and taught at Trinity (N.C.) High School for one year. Childress then moved into the business field and is now a senior healthcare consultant with Pfizer, Inc. He and his wife, Anna, have one daughter, Tatum, and twin sons Grant and Samuel.
