Paul McBrayer was born October 12, 1909 in Kavanaugh, KY. He attended Kavanaugh High School where he played basketball. In 1926 he started playing for the University of Kentucky where he was selected as an All-American in 1930.

His first coaching job was at Morton Junior High School; and the following year he went to Kavanaugh High School to coach for two years. In 1934, he became the assistant coach under Adolph Rupp at U.K. During WWII McBrayer left U.K. and served as a staff sergeant in the Army. Afterwards, when McBrayer went back to U.K., Rupp informed him there were no available staff positions. Soon afterwards, President O'Donnell of Eastern State College offered McBrayer the head coaching job.

At Eastern he accomplished more than any other coach before or for decades afterward. He brought the basketball team from the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to Division I basketball. He was the most winning basketball coach in Eastern history, with a 219 win, 144 loss record.

After retirement, both UK and EKU former players annually gathered for McBrayer Appreciation Days. A scholarship was named in his honor for Anderson County students, and in January 1989, the McBrayer Arena at Eastern's Alumni Coliseum was named in his honor.

In 1999, McBrayer died of cancer in Lexington, KY. (Information taken from a Lexington Herald-Leader article by John Clay and an article from The Anderson News by Rick Bailey, both can be found in the Paul McBrayer Newspaper Articles folder).