Oregon Trail #4...Rich Brooks
This is the fourth in a series dedicated to Oregon.
Rich Brooks is a retired American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Oregon from 1977 to 1994.
Brooks' 1994 Oregon team won the Pac-10 title and played in the 1995 Rose Bowl. For his efforts that season, he won a number of national coaching awards. The University of Oregon named the field at Autzen Stadium Rich Brooks Field in honor of his 18 seasons as coach for the Ducks.
Brooks accepted his first head coaching position in 1977 at the University of Oregon. At the time of his arrival, the Ducks had not had a winning season since 1969, and only one since 1965.
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 Bowll—their first bowl appearance since 1963. Brooks 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.