WSU coaching legend Brayton dies at 89

YAKIMA, Wash. - You should have seen the look on Mel Stottlemyre's face.

The former New York Yankees pitcher and coach, in Yakima for a Parker Youth & Sports Foundation event in 2006, had just seen Bobo Brayton enter the room. Stottlemyre hurried through a crowd, hugged Brayton, then held each of his former coach's shoulders while looking at Brayton's beaming countenance with sheer, unadulterated joy.

That's the way it no doubt was for countless Washington State Cougars and others who had played for, coached with or otherwise knew the college baseball coaching legend, who died early Saturday.

He was 89.

"Bobo," Stottlemyre said in a telephone interview, "was loved by everybody. He had a way about him. Once you knew Bobo, it's like you'd known him all your life."

Stottlemyre, though never a Cougar, had been a Yakima Valley College Indian with Brayton as his coach. It was here, after all, that Frederick Charles Brayton began his Hall of Fame career.

Brayton was hired at YVC in 1950 and led the baseball program through 11 years and 10 league championships before succeeding Buck Bailey at WSU in 1961.

There he coached for 33 years, and Yakima Valley products Bob Garretson Jr., Manny Perez, Dave Edler were among his players.

"I think all of us who played for him, we were all very close," Edler, a Yakima minister, said Saturday. "It was an honor to have played for him."

Or to have been a teammate and friend, as Tom Parry had been at Washington State before embarking on his own career as a football coach at Central Washington University and Yakima Valley Community College.

"What a guy," said Parry, who played football with Brayton in 1947 for coach Phil Sarboe. "High energy, no BS. Tough as nails, played linebacker and fullback for us, and I was very fortunate to get to know Bobo and realize what a wonderful damned guy he was."

Consider, then, Bill Faller, who succeeded Brayton as Yakima Valley's baseball coach. Faller had known Brayton since the two played youth baseball together in Mount Vernon.

And unlike most, Faller affectionately referred to Brayton as "Charlie." Brayton, meanwhile, called Faller "Willie."

"With Charlie, he was able to go, go, go, and then he'd maybe sit down and rest his eyes for a little bit," Faller said. "When I replaced him at YVC, the one thing he told me was to go to bed at 11 o'clock and get a good night's sleep. To Charlie, that meant going to bed at 11 and getting up at 5 in the morning."

Garretson, who played two years for Faller and then one for Brayton in 1964 before signing a professional contract, said, "First of all, baseball has lost a great coach and person. Bobo was unique, and he really understood his players. And he cared for them.

"He was demanding, but he was fun to play for because he knew the capabilities of his players. One of the reasons he was so successful is he put the right guys in the right spots at the right times."

He put Perez at shortstop in 1970, and for two seasons the Highland High School graduate served as team captain while also excelling as one of the best infielders Brayton coached.

Perez had driven Faller to Pullman earlier last week to be with Brayton, who passed away at his home near Pullman.

"It's a sad day for Cougar nation," Perez said. "There were several of us who were with him, and we were able to hold his hand and say some personal things, and I think he was able to hear us. It was tough.

"But he was a man who meant a lot to a lot of people. Just his personality, his character, the things he taught us that transferred to the way we lived. He taught us that we were going to get knocked down, but when that happened you get back up, dust yourself off and move forward."

As Brayton himself had, winning 1,413 games (251 at YVC, 1,162 at WSU).

At Pullman his teams won nearly 70 percent of their games, claiming 21 conference championships and making the NCAA postseason 10 times including College World Series berths in 1965 and 1976.

Stottlemyre, Edler, Ron Cey, John Olerud, Aaron Sele and another Yakiman, Scott Hatteberg, were among the major leaguers tutored by Brayton.

When he retired in 1994, Brayton's win total ranked fourth all-time on the NCAA list. And he has since been inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame, WSU Athletic Hall of Fame and YVCC Athletic Hall of Fame.

As an athlete, Brayton was a three-sport Cougar, playing football, baseball for Buck Bailey and also basketball during the 1943-44 season for Jack Friel.

He became the school's first baseball All-American in 1947, and WSU's baseball facility is named Bailey-Brayton Field.

Said Parry, "Bobo is right up there with Babe Hollingbery, Jack Friel and a select few others in terms of what he meant to Washington State University."

Said Edler, "I think about coach a lot, and I still use Boboisms when I talk to people."

Said Stottlemyre, "I had the privilege of playing for Bobo his last year at YVC, and boy, what an experience. I learned a lot from him. He was a great coach and a great teacher in a lot of different ways, and I will really miss him."

Said Perez, "Like Bobo always said, 'Go Cougs.'"