Terry Bradshaw

Bradshaw was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1948. His father, William Marvin "Bill" Bradshaw (1927–2014), a native of Sparta, Tennessee, was a veteran of the United States Navy, a former vice president of manufacturing of the Riley Beaird Company in Shreveport, and a Southern Baptist layman. His mother, Novis (née Gay; 1929–2023), was one of five children of Clifford and Lula Gay of Red River Parish, Louisiana. He has an older brother, Gary, and a younger brother, Craig.

In his early childhood, the family lived in Camanche, Iowa, where he set forth the goal to play professional football. When he was a teenager, Bradshaw returned with his family to Shreveport. There, he attended Woodlawn High School, played under assistant coach A. L. Williams, and led the Knights to the AAA state championship game in 1965, but lost 12–9 to the Sulphur Golden Tornadoes. While at Woodlawn, he set a national record for throwing the javelin at 245 feet (74.68 m); his exploits earned him a spot in the Sports Illustrated feature Faces in the Crowd. Bradshaw's successor as Woodlawn's starting quarterback was another future NFL standout, Joe Ferguson of the Buffalo Bills. Bradshaw's Steelers defeated Ferguson's Bills in a 1974 divisional playoff game.Bradshaw decided to attend Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. He has much affinity for his alma mater, and is a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Initially, he was second on the depth chart at quarterback behind Phil "Roxie" Robertson, who later became famous as the inventor of the Duck Commander duck call and television personality on the A&E program Duck Dynasty.

When he arrived at Tech in 1966, Bradshaw caused a media frenzy because of his reputation as a football sensation from nearby Shreveport. Robertson was a year ahead of Bradshaw, and was the starter for two seasons in 1966 and 1967, and chose not to play in 1968. As Robertson put it: "I'm going for the ducks, you [Terry] can go for the bucks."

In 1969, Bradshaw was considered by most professional scouts to be the most outstanding college football player in the nation. As a junior during the 1968 season, he amassed 2,890 total yards, ranking number one in the NCAA, and led his team to a 9–2 record and a 33–13 win over Akron in the Rice Bowl. In his senior season, he gained 2,314 yards, ranking third in the NCAA, and led his team to an 8–2 record. His decrease in production was mainly because his team played only 10 games that year, and he was taken out of several games in the second half because his team had built up huge leads.

Bradshaw graduated owning virtually all Louisiana Tech passing records at the time. In 1970, Bradshaw received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1984, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Louisiana Tech sports hall of fame. Four years later, he was inducted into the state of Louisiana's sports hall of fame.

Bradshaw has appeared in numerous television commercials. The most recent was the series of live ads for Tide detergent along with his Fox Sports co-host Curt Menefee, where Bradshaw shows up with a shirt stain on what appeared to be live TV from the Fox broadcast booth at Super Bowl LI and then washes it with Tide at the house of Jeffrey Tambor. The teasers leading up to the Super Bowl showed Tambor initially taking his shirts to Rob Gronkowski's dry cleaners, only to see the sleeves get ripped out. Near the end of the Super Bowl, Menefee spills coffee on his shirt, but Tambor, who is watching on TV, refuses to help out.

Bradshaw has had cameo appearances in many shows as himself, including Brotherly Love, Everybody Loves Raymond, Married... with Children, Modern Family, The Larry Sanders Show, and The League. He also appeared on Malcolm in the Middle with Howie Long as the trashy coach of a women's ice hockey team. He hosted a short-lived television series in 1997 called Home Team with Terry Bradshaw.

In addition to his television work, Bradshaw has appeared in several movies, including a part in the 1978 film Hooper, which starred Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Sally Field, and made an appearance in the 1981 film The Cannonball Run. In 1980, he had a cameo in Smokey and the Bandit II, which starred Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed, and Sally Field. He made a guest appearance in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. in 1994, playing Colonel Forrest March, a rogue U.S. Army officer who gave orders to his squad (played by NFL players Ken Norton Jr., Carl Banks, and Jim Harbaugh) in a huddle using football diagrams.

Bradshaw appeared on Jeff Foxworthy's short-lived sitcom The Jeff Foxworthy Show as a motivational speaker for people needing to change their lives. Bill Engvall's character is affected by Bradshaw's rantings about witchcraft and voodoo in his pregame warm-ups.

On October 11, 2001, Bradshaw received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first NFL player to do so.

In 2006, Bradshaw returned to the silver screen in the motion picture Failure to Launch. He and Kathy Bates played the parents of Matthew McConaughey's character. In one notable scene, he appeared nude, which his own daughters (who were teenagers at the time) did not even know about until they saw the movie's premiere with their grandmother and were half-heartedly warned by Bradshaw just moments before the scene.

He is also a devout Christian and wrote the book Terry Bradshaw: Man of Steel with broadcaster Dave Diles. Since 2010, Bradshaw has been hosting television shows produced by United States Media Television.

In 2017, Bradshaw appeared as himself in the comedy film Father Figures.

In 2016 and 2018, Bradshaw had a leading role in the NBC reality-travel series Better Late Than Never, where he travels around the world with William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George Foreman, and Jeff Dye. In 2017, he had a supporting role as a fictionalized version of himself in the comedy film Father Figures.

On January 16, 2019, Bradshaw competed in season one of The Masked Singer as "Deer".

On January 2, 2020, he was on the season-eight premiere of Last Man Standing.

On September 17, 2020, Bradshaw and his family premiered their new E! reality show The Bradshaw Bunch.