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Chuck Brayton

Frederick Charles Brayton (October 20, 1925 – March 28, 2015), usually known as Chuck BraytonorBobo Brayton, was an American college baseball head coach; he led the Washington State Cougars for 33 seasons, from 1962 to 1994.^[1] He is the winningest coach in school history, with a record of 1,162 wins, 523 losses and eight ties—the fourth-best total in NCAA history at the time he retired.^[2]

His Cougar teams won 21 conference titles (two Northern Division and 19 Pac-8/10), including 11 in a row from 1970 to 1980. He led the Cougars to the College World Seriesin1965 and 1976, and was the fifth baseball head coach in NCAA history to exceed a thousand wins.^[3] Win number 1,000 came in 1990 in his 29th season, at home on April 11,^[4][5] and he coached four more years.^[6]

Brayton was a three-sport varsity athlete at Washington State and played shortstop in 1944 for interim coach Jack Friel and from 1946 to 1948 for Buck Bailey;^[1] he was named the school's first baseball All-American in 1947.^[7] As an incoming freshman in September 1943, Brayton hitchhiked across the state to Pullman from Skagit County in northwestern Washington.^[8][9] After his freshman year, he served 18 months in the Army Air Forces.^[1][10] His #14 jersey was retired by the school in 2003,^{[11][12][13][14]} and he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.^[2][15]

Bailey–Brayton Field, the Cougars' home stadium since 1980, is named for Brayton and his predecessor, Buck Bailey (1896–1964).^[16] When the old field was displaced by the new Mooberry track, Brayton constructed the new stadium on a budget, using items salvaged from Sick's StadiuminSeattle, as well as donated materials and volunteer labor.^[8][9] Formerly Buck Bailey Field, Brayton's name joined his mentor's in January 2000.^[17]

Prior to coaching at WSU, Brayton was the head coach for over a decade at Yakima Valley Junior College,^[18][19] and also its head football coach for five seasons.^[20][21] He had a record of 251–68 (.787) in 11 seasons at Yakima and won ten championships.^[9] While at Yakima, a line drive nearly killed him and he was hospitalized for a month; he wore a helmet the rest of his coaching career.^[1][22]

In declining health in his later years, Brayton died at age 89 at his Pullman home in 2015,^[23][24][25] and was buried at the city cemetery.

Head coaching record[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of college baseball coaches with 1,100 wins

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• College Baseball Hall of Fame website Archived 2019-04-23 at the Wayback Machine
• Video of induction speech
• Yakima Valley Community College Athletics Hall of Fame
• Baseball Essentials – Remembering Chuck "Bobo" Brayton (1925–2015)
• Obituary