He led the Cougars to the College World Series in 1965 and 1976, and was the fifth baseball head coach in NCAA history to exceed a thousand wins.

[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.

[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.