Bill Braucher was a legendary figure in Palmerton high school athletics.
Bill Braucher. This drawing by Jim Musselman originally appeared in The Morning Call.
Bill Braucher (1894-1941) was born in Stony Run, a small community south of Kempton in Berks County, about fifteen miles west of Slatington. He attended Kutztown high school and then Kutztown Normal School (now Kutztown University). He eventually received B.S. and M.S. degrees from New York University.
He taught at several smaller Pennsylvania schools before being hired in 1920 as the principal of the Delaware Avenue grade school in Palmerton, and then in 1925 he was named physical director and athletic coach at the high school. That began his coaching career.
Braucher was especially successful as a basketball coach. For the five years from 1930 to 1935 his team dominated the Lehigh Valley League without losing a single game in league play. At one point, the winning streak reached 70 games! That success resulted in six league titles between 1929-1935, including five in a row, and three district XI championships (1932, 1933, 1934). In the 1931-32 season, the team reached the state semi-finals before losing to Old Forge High School. His overall basketball record was 203 - 61 in over 12 seasons.
When Braucher resigned because of ill health in January 1938, that brought an end to his thirteen years of coaching Palmerton athletic teams. Besides his success with boys’ basketball, he also coached the girls’ team to league titles in 1928, 1929 and 1935. And his baseball team won the league crown in 1935.
With regard to high school football, he helped to start the Palmerton high school team, from scratch, in 1935. That first year the team was 1-4 with the only win coming against Slatington on Thanksgiving Day. In 1936 the team improved slightly to 2-5-1 with wins against Lehighton and Slatington, and then in 1937 the team again had only one win (1-8, with the lone win against Slatington).
While he resigned as basketball coach in 1938, he still coached the high school golf team for 1938. He also continued to teach math and science in the high school, and in 1940 he was elected to the Palmerton borough council.
Braucher died suddenly of a heart attack in 1941 and was buried in Towamensing cemetery. He had married Bertha Arnold (1897-1992) in 1929, and they had three daughters (Ann, Eleanor, Louise). He was a World War 1 veteran.
In 1988 Braucher was chosen for the Lehigh Valley basketball hall of fame.