Jack Braddish, former West Islip football coach and athletic director, dies at 85

There’s a saying among West Islip alumni, particularly athletes: “Lions for life.” If anyone wore that phrase like a well-earned badge of honor, it was Jack Braddish.

Braddish joined the West Islip school district in 1961. He would become the district’s high school football coach in 1969, kicking off an 11-year run that helped mold West Islip athletics into what it is today.

John Joseph “Jack” Braddish Jr. died on Dec. 31 in West Islip after a bout with respiratory syncytial virus and pneumonia, according to his son Kevin Braddish. He was 85.

“He was the kind of guy who threw compliments around like manhole covers,” said Kevin Braddish, who lives in Bay Shore. “People still loved him. He really went out of his way to help [his players] as much as he could.”

Jack Braddish had a 62-29-4 record as the Lions' football coach, winning four league titles across eight winning seasons. Seven of his teams ranked in the top 25 within the state and four of those teams had only one loss.

Braddish’s success wasn't limited to the field.

Take George Botsch, who played for Braddish from 1977-78. Braddish helped Botsch find contacts for colleges and universities that he could send his film to in hopes of playing on the collegiate level. Botsch now works at West Islip High School as a physical education teacher.

“He got me into college,” said Botsch, who played at University of Texas at El Paso.  “ He coached every facet of the game. There were only two coaches back then . . . and there were five guys on my team that went on to play Division I football. That hasn’t happened since.”

Braddish was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 17, 1938. He grew up in Long Beach and attended Stanton Military Academy and Ithaca College, where he met his future wife, Mary Lou “Mikki” McCullough.

Braddish moved to West Islip to start his family and worked his way from a driving school instructor to football coach before becoming West Islip’s athletic director in 1980. He retired in 1996.

Braddish’s football team would visit his house every Sunday morning, gathering in the basement to prepare for an upcoming game while munching on brownies baked by McCullough.

“That was every week, every kid. Nobody missed it,” said Botsch, who grew up with Braddish’s sons in West Islip and is the godfather to one of Braddish’s grandsons. “I’ve remained good friends with his sons . . . I’ve spent every Christmas and New Year’s with them for the last 30 years.”

Braddish, described as "old school" by West Islip Hall of Famer Wayne Shierant and Kevin Braddish, provided tough love to his players and preached the importance of loyalty.

For Shierant, who coached West Islip football to 112 wins from 1981 to 1995, that loyalty was present in the creation of West Islip’s Hall of Fame. Jack Braddish led the Hall of Fame's first induction ceremony in 1995 after touring different schools with Shierant as they scouted other Hall of Fame set-ups while planning one for the Lions.

“The first time, everyone got blown away,” said Shierant, of Moriches.  “We’ve always felt that what [Braddish] developed is absolutely the best.”

Today the Hall of Fame features pictures and hand-carved quotes from the best of the best from West Islip. Shierant said many alumni would send letters, sharing their thanks and appreciation for the honor that Braddish set in motion all those years before.

Braddish was even able to induct his own grandson, Ian, into the Hall of Fame in the spring of 2023.

West Islip athletic director Tim Horan, who played football from 1983-86 at West Islip while Braddish was the athletic director, runs West Islip’s Hall of Fame today.

“Pretty much all the procedures, processes, policies and culture of excellence in West Islip was formulated by Jack Braddish,” Horan said. “Because he came in at the infancy of our school district, he was right there forming processes that are still in existence today.”

His passions went beyond football. Both Kevin Braddish and Horan noted how Braddish supported Title IX, which helped institute equal access to sports for boys and girls in schools.

In addition to his son Kevin, Jack Braddish is survived by son Keith Braddish, of Locust Valley, and daughters Rebecca Harney, of Bay Shore, and Erin Morgan, of Hackettstown, New Jersey. Braddish also had a sister, Joanne Zammetti, of West Islip, and a brother, Kevin Braddish, of Long Beach, as well as 12 grandchildren and a great-grandson.

Braddish was cremated, his family said.

In lieu of flowers, Braddish’s family set up a scholarship fund in his memory: the Jack Braddish Scholarship. Donations can be sent to WIAHOF, 1 Lions Path, West Islip, NY, 11795.

With Andy Slawson