Carl August Braun Jr. (September 25, 1927 – February 10, 2010)[1] was an American professional basketball and baseball player and professional basketball coach.
Sports career
Born on September 25, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Braun's German American family moved to Garden City for his senior year of high school. At 6'4" and 185 pounds he had talent as both a right-handed pitcher and as a basketball player. His high school nickname was "bean pole".[2] As a senior at Garden City High School, he helped lead his team to their first-ever Nassau County baseball championship in 1945, and was a star basketball player; he was subsequently one of the inaugural inductees into the Nassau County High School Sports Hall of Fame.[3] He enrolled in Colgate College and played collegiately for the Colgate University Raiders in 1945–1946. In the summer of 1947 was signed by the New York Yankees while still only 19 years old. He played two seasons for Yankee farm teams in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and then Amsterdam, New York, appearing in 35 games compiling a 2–3 won-lost record.[4]
In between those minor league baseball seasons, he also joined the New York Knicks for their 1947–1948 season, effectively playing in two professional sports simultaneously. On December 6, 1947, he set a then NBA single-game scoring record, recording 47 points.[5] Incredibly he pitched one more season in the Yankees organization that following summer, until deciding that basketball was his future.[6] Braun was one of the premier guards of the 1950s and spent 13 seasons in the NBA, all but the last with the Knicks. Braun led the Knicks in scoring during his first seven seasons.[5] He was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1948 and 1954. He ended his career in 1962, after one season with the Boston Celtics. Braun played in five NBA All-Star Games and scored 10,625 points in his professional career. Braun was a player-coach for the Knicks in 1960 and 1961 as well, compiling a 40–87 head coaching record.
He did not play in the NBA during the 1950–1951 or 1951–1952 seasons after being drafted into the United States Army.[7] After completing basic training at Fort Bragg, Braun served in the cadre to train new recruits and was an athletic and recreational officer.[8] He continued to play basketball on the base, winning back-to-back Fort Bragg championships before being selected to represent the base in the 1952 Third Army Tournament.[8][9] Bragg went 4–1 in the tournament and won the final against Fort Jackson (who gave Bragg their only loss); Braun was voted most valuable player after scoring 151 points.[8][9] The title qualified Bragg for the All-Army Tournament, where they were eliminated by Fort Dix in the first round despite Braun leading all players with 35 points.[10] When his service permitted, Braun also played for the semi-pro Washington Capitols in 1951–52, with whom he recorded 101 points across his first four games before ending his tenure with over 20 points per game.[11][8] He was discharged in September 1952 as a corporal.[8][12]
Braun is featured in the 1948 Bowman set of basketball cards, the 1957 Topps set, and the 1961 Fleer set. Though sportscaster Marty Glickman made the term "swish" a popular basketball colloquialism, he attributed the genesis of the word to Braun, who he heard say it following a good shot during warmup. Glickman used the term frequently in broadcasts throughout the 1950s. Braun was elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
Personal life
Braun was born in Brooklyn and moved to Garden City, New York as a teenager where he went to high school and lived most of his adult life.[13] After retiring from professional sports, Braun was a Wall Street stockbroker. He retired to Florida around 1990. He married his wife Joan in 1952 with whom he had four daughters Susan, Patricia, Nancy and Carol, and six grandchildren. He and Joan were married 58 years.[14]
