His hiring as coach at Haverford School lacked convention, too.
Brady went to the school to meet with athletic director John Nostrant.
Brady wasn't a candidate for the position.
He was a reference for two candidates.
Eventually offered the job, and wanting to do what's best for his family, particularly his young son, he took it.
"The long and short of it is," Brady said, "don't list me as a reference."
Brady, 38, had a built-in reference for his first coaching job. A political science major at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Brady was working for a lobbying firm in Washington when Jeff Cook, his coach for the first three of his four seasons at Wheaton, became head coach at the University of Cincinnati in 1996.
Cook asked Brady to be an assistant coach. The job was only part-time - Brady said he thinks the raise he was offered to stay at the firm exceeded the coaching pay - and he helped the Bearcats gain national prominence.
"Much of the credit is to Jeff, because he's one of the most intelligent guys I know and very, very organized. But in the three years that I was there with him, I think we went from 198 in the RPI out of 201 to 27th in the RPI," Brady said.
"It was really an amazing transformation, which is probably why they hired me at St. Bonaventure."
There, in his first season, the Bonnies qualified for the Atlantic Ten tournament for the first time. In his fourth year, they entered the national rankings for the first time, and they were ranked again in his sixth, and final, season.
"His coaching ability and his skills were outstanding," former St. Bonaventure athletic director Ron Zwierlein said. "But his biggest strength was working with young people and getting the most out of them."
