The following was printed on Ben Braun's HOF plaque:
In just his second year as the Saints’ basketball coach in 1979, Coach Braun guided the team to its first winning season in the program’s history. The ’79 Saints won 24 games—a record that would last nearly a decade. From 1979-84, Braun led the Saints to six consecutive winning seasons.
Following the 1984 season, Braun moved on to Eastern Michigan University, where he was named interim head coach midway through the ’85 season. Within two years, he guided EMU to their first of three Mid-American Conference (MAC) titles and their first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
In a nine-year span from 1987-96, Braun was named the MAC Coach-of-the-Year three times and his teams competed in four post-season tournaments. His 1990-91 club went 26-7 and advanced to the “Sweet 16” in the NCAA Tournament before falling to North Carolina. The 1995-96 team went 25-6 and defeated Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
In 1997, Braun was named coach at the University of California, where he led the Bears to the “Sweet 16” and became the first Cal coach ever to be named PAC-10 Coach-of-the-Year in his first season.
