Clarence Brooks (2017) - Hall of Fame - University of Massachusetts Athletics

Clarence Brooks

Induction:
2017
Class:
1973

New Bedford, Massachusetts, native Clarence Brooks was a four-year letterwinner on the UMass football offensive line. He was selected first-team all-Yankee Conference and first-team all-New England as a senior in 1972. Also in his final campaign, he led the Minutemen to the Yankee Conference Championship with a conference record of 5-0 and overall record of 9-2. As a team captain, he guided UMass to its first-ever postseason win at the 1972 Boardwalk Bowl.

Brooks spent 1993-2016 on staff with the Ravens, Dolphins, Browns and Bears of the National Football League, primarily working with the defensive line. In the collegiate ranks, he coached the 1976-1992 campaigns on staff at Arizona, Syracuse and with the Minutemen. He was passionately active in the Baltimore inner city community, promoting social responsibility and personal accountability to young adults.

Upon his passing in September 2016 after a year-long battle with esophageal cancer, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said of Brooks, "one of the finest coaches I have ever met, he changed the lives and influenced players and coaches for the better. He was a great man, loving husband and devoted father. He was as tough and determined in adversity as you'll ever see and as loyal a friend as there is."

Brooks was inducted into the UMass Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.