Rich Brooks

Rich Brooks
Sport(s)	Football
Biographical details
Born	August 20, 1941 (1941-08-20) Forest, California
Playing career
1961–1963	Oregon State
Position(s)	Defensive back
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1963 1964 1965–1969 1970 1971–1972 1973 1974–1975 1976 1977–1994 1995–1996 1997–2000 2003–2009	Oregon State (asst. freshmen) Norte Del Rio HS (CA) (assistant) Oregon State (DL) UCLA (LB) Los Angeles Rams (ST) Oregon State (DC) San Francisco 49ers (DB) UCLA (LB/ST) Oregon St. Louis Rams Atlanta Falcons (DC) Kentucky
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1992–1994	Oregon
Head coaching record
Overall	128–154–4 (college) 13–19 (NFL)
Bowls	4–4
Statistics College Football Data Warehouse
Accomplishments and honors
Championships 1 Pac-10 (1994)
Awards Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (1994) Home Depot Coach of the Year Award (1994) Sporting News College Football COY (1994) Paul "Bear" Bryant Award (1994) 2x Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1979, 1994)

Rich Brooks (born August 20, 1941) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Oregon from 1977 to 1994 and at the University of Kentucky from 2003 to 2009, compiling a career college football record of 128–154–4. Brooks was also the head coach of the NFL's St. Louis Rams from 1995 to 1996, tallying mark of 13–19. Brooks' 1994 Oregon team won the Pacific-10 Conference title and made an appearance in the 1995 Rose Bowl. For his efforts that season, he won a number of national coaching awards.

Education

Brooks attended Oregon State University. He majored in physical education and played defensive back for the football team. He received his bachelor's degree in 1963 and completed his master's degree in education at Oregon State the next year. He was also a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity at Oregon State.

Coaching

His coaching career started at Oregon State as an assistant freshman coach while working on his master's degree. After receiving his master's degree, he moved to Sacramento, California where he accepted an assistant coaching job at Norte Del Rio High School. He soon returned to his alma mater to serve as an assistant coach for the Beavers from 1965 to 1970.

Brooks rejoined legendary Oregon State University coach Tommy Prothro as linebackers coach at UCLA in 1970, then accepted a job with the Los Angeles Rams in 1971 as special teams and fundamentals coach. After two years in the NFL, Brooks returned to Oregon State to serve as defensive coordinator in 1973. In 1974-, Brooks went back to the NFL as defensive backs and special teams coach for the San Francisco 49ers until returning to UCLA in 1976 to coach linebackers, where he helped the Bruins to a top-20 final ranking.

Brooks accepted his first head coaching position at the University of Oregon, Oregon State's bitter rival, in 1977. At the time of his arrival, the Ducks had not had a winning season since 1969, and only one winning season since 1965. During his tenure at Oregon, a nationwide recruiting scandal was exposed; in the early 80s, the school was placed on probation by both the NCAA and Pac-10 for violations in recruiting, misuse of funds and academic standards.

Brooks' teams dominated the instate rivalry with Oregon State, compiling an overall record of 14–3–1, which kept him popular during several disappointing seasons. In 1989, he led the Ducks to a berth in the Independence Bowl--their first bowl appearance since 1963. He would lead them to three more bowls in his tenure, becoming the first coach in school history to take the Ducks to four bowl games. His best season came in 1994, when he led the Ducks to the first outright conference title in the school's 100-year football history and a berth in the Rose Bowl. Brooks was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year, and also won the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award as national coach of the year. His 91 wins were a school record until his successor and former offensive coordinator, Mike Bellotti, broke it in 2006; his 109 losses remain a school record. Brooks left Oregon for the NFL after the 1994 season. His overall record at Oregon was 18 games under .500, largely due to his first seven teams winning only 22 games combined. Nonetheless, Brooks is credited with reviving Oregon's football program and setting the stage for its rise to national prominence under Bellotti and Chip Kelly.

After the 1994 season, Brooks spent two years as head coach of the rebuilding St. Louis Rams, in which the team went 13–19. After leaving St. Louis, Brooks spent four years on Dan Reeves' staff in Atlanta, and served as interim head coach for the final two games of the Falcons' 1998 Super Bowl season.

After two years away from the game, Brooks was hired as head coach at the University of Kentucky prior to the 2003 season. There was some controversy surrounding Brooks' hiring since he hadn't coached at the college level in almost a decade. Brooks inherited a team that was 7–5 in 2002, but was just beginning to feel the effect of NCAA probation imposed because of recruiting violations committed by a prior Kentucky coaching staff. In Brooks' first three seasons his squads posted records of 4–8, 2–9 and 3–8 (9–25 overall, 4–20 in Southeastern Conference games).

Brooks coached the 2006 Kentucky squad to a 7–5 regular season. The Wildcats earned their first bowl bid since 1999, against Clemson in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee where Brooks' Wildcats defeated the Tigers 28–20 for Kentucky's first bowl victory since 1984.

On December 23, 2006, Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced that the University and Brooks had agreed to a contract extension for four years, plus an additional year at the University's option. Brooks' base pay is $1 million per year plus other incentives.

In 2007, the Kentucky compiled a 8–5 won-loss record overall and 3–5 in the SEC East including wins over the #1 ranked LSU Tigers and intrastate rival #8 ranked Louisville Cardinals. Kentucky rose to as high as #8 in the AP Poll. The Wildcats closed out their campaign in the 2007 Music City Bowl, this time defeating the Florida State Seminoles by a score of 35–28.

On January 18, 2008, the Kentucky athletics department announced that when Brooks chose to retire, former Kentucky player and then offensive coordinator Joker Phillips would become the football team's next head coach. No date was set for this transition, but the action was taken to provide prospective recruits assurance of a smooth transition.

In 2008, the Wildcats went 7–6, defeating favored East Carolina, the Conference USA champions, in the 2009 Liberty Bowl. Brooks became the first Kentucky coach to win bowl games in three consecutive years. On September 30, 2009, Brooks announced on his Twitter page that he had undergone a procedure to remove skin cancer from his leg.

Brooks announced his retirement from collegiate coaching on January 4, 2010. As planned, Joker Phillips succeeded him. After leaving the Wildcats he returned to Oregon, living in Lane County near the McKenzie River.

Head coaching record

College

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Oregon Ducks (Pacific-10 Conference) (1977–1994)
1977	Oregon	2–9	1–6	7th
1978	Oregon	2–9	2–5	6th
1979	Oregon	6–5	4–3	T–3rd
1980	Oregon	6–3–2	4–3–1	5th
1981	Oregon	2–9	1–6	9th
1982	Oregon	2–8–1	2–6	9th
1983	Oregon	4–6–1	3–3–1	T–6th
1984	Oregon	6–5	3–5	7th
1985	Oregon	5–6	3–4	6th
1986	Oregon	5–6	3–5	7th
1987	Oregon	6–5	4–4	5th
1988	Oregon	6–6	3–5	T–6th
1989	Oregon	8–4	5–3	T–2nd	W Independence
1990	Oregon	8–4	4–3	3rd	L Freedom
1991	Oregon	3–8	1–7	T–9th
1992	Oregon	6–6	4–4	T–6th	L Independence
1993	Oregon	5–6	2–6	T–8th
1994	Oregon	9–4	7–1	1st	L Rose	11	11
Oregon:		91–109–4	56–79–2
Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (2003–2009)
2003	Kentucky	4–8	1–7	6th (East)
2004	Kentucky	2–9	1–7	5th (East)
2005	Kentucky	3–8	2–6	6th (East)
2006	Kentucky	8–5	4–4	3rd (East)	W Music City
2007	Kentucky	8–5	3–5	4th (East)	W Music City
2008	Kentucky	7–6	2–6	6th (East)	W Liberty
2009	Kentucky	7–6	3–5	5th (East)	L Music City
Kentucky:		39–46	16–39
Total:		128–154–4
National championship         Conference title         Conference division title
#Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll.

External links

• Kentucky profile
• Rich Brooks at the College Football Data Warehouse

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jim Bates	Atlanta Falcons Defensive Coordinator 1997–2000	Succeeded by Don Blackmon