Central Michigan University Athletics
Hall of Fame 2025: Crystal Bradford Was a Game Changer
9/19/2025 8:37:00 AM | General, Women’s Basketball
Bradford, who rewrote the program record book and took the Chippewas to unprecedented heights from 2011-15, will be inducted into the Central Michigan University Marcy Weston Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Friday, Sept. 26 in McGuirk Arena in the Kulhavi Events Center.
She and other members of the Class of 2025 will be introduced during the CMU-Eastern Michigan football game on Kramer/Deromedi Field at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 27.
Bradford, a Detroit native, was a lanky 6-foot sky’s-the-limit talent when she arrived in Mount Pleasant in 2011 fresh out of Inkster High School.
She left four years later as the program’s career leader in scoring, rebounding and blocks, a four-time All-Mid-American Conference honoree who earned a MAC Player of the Year Award, a MAC Defensive Player of the Year Award, a MAC Tournament MVP Award, and led the Chippewas to a MAC Tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament bid.
In 2015, she was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks in the first round of the WNBA draft. No MAC player had not, and still has not, been taken higher.
Bradford was an immediate and bona fide star at CMU, recruited by Sue Guevara, who was then in her fifth year as the Chippewas’ coach, building the program into a power.
With Guevara pulling the levers and the team in Bradford’s capable hands, success quickly followed on the court. Off the court? Not so easy for Bradford, who candidly chronicled her personal growth in a first-person mea culpa titled ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ published online in 2023 at theplayerstribune.com.
“Being at Central was such a culture shock,” Bradford said. “I was never anywhere where there was a lot of white people at all. My school had white teachers; that’s as far as it went.”
Her adjustment to Mount Pleasant and life on a relatively isolated college campus, far from the urban setting in which she was raised, wasn’t always smooth. She leaned on Guevara and assistant coach Heather Oesterle.
“I think I was at a place (CMU) where I could adjust and learn at my pace without the world’s scrutiny,” Bradford said. “I think I was protected because of it.
“Sue Guevara was everything. The time she took out to recruit me – and this is me speaking from an older standpoint now – and the time she took out when I was there, to mold me as a human being … I absorbed that. It wasn’t about me just listening. She spent time making it my new construct, if that makes sense.
“Without Sue, without Heather, I wouldn’t have made it. I want to make this clear: It was not just ‘get to class.’ They formulated a plan for me to be successful, I mean a day-to-day plan. Meeting up with them every day meant something to me; them showing me the support meant something to me – it meant everything to me. It gave me confidence. They did those little things for me.”
Bradford earned a bachelor’s degree in 2015 – Guevara called it one of the proudest moments of her coaching career – and has gone on to a professional career that has included stints with three WNBA teams as well as stops all over the globe, including Brazil, Poland, Puerto Rico, Israel, Turkey and Egypt, among others. In November, she will head to China.
A lot of miles and a lot of packing and unpacking for Bradford.
And an awful lot of growth.
“All the trauma and all the pain I’ve been through in my life and to get success out of it is everything. Just because you go through things does not mean that you’re going to win. It takes a lot to win. And the people that have been in my life from Central Michigan impacted my win astronomically. Huge. The right support can change your life and it did.
“I wouldn’t change going to Central Michigan for the world.”
