On Rich Brooks’ day, his day of retirement, oddly there sounded like a hint of regret in his voice. “I have decided that it is time for me to step away and turn this program over,” Brooks said. “Hopefully it will be not only competitive but reach the heights that I failed to get to. That is my biggest regret, not having broken more of the streaks that needed to be broken.”Rich, you have nothing – absolutely nothing – to regret at Kentucky. “I don’t think that magical year is impossible here,” Brook said. “It is a lot closer to happening now then it was seven years ago. I feel good about that. I don’t feel as good as I would like to feel about what I have accomplished here.”Rich, it’s OK. You should feel like a million dollars. For everything you’ve done, you deserved to walk out of the media room with your head held high. Nobody would have blamed you had you hit it on the top of the doorway. That’s how much you’ve done.Throw out the records and the mystique of past coaches. You have pulled off the greatest coaching tenure in school history because you did it against every odd and every critic in perhaps the best talent one conference has ever assembled. “I think his legacy is that he was a guy that went through an incredible difficult period of Kentucky football and brought it back to absolute respectability,” Barnhart said. The four straight bowl appearances speak for themselves. How he did it, though, is still tough for some to comprehend, especially those thousands of people who were ready to personally carry Brooks to the Lexington city limits and toss him to the curb.Through it all, Brooks put blinders on and stared straight away into the eyes of adversity. He did it through impeccable relationships with the players and unwavering hard work. Brooks looked out for the players and the integrity of the program first. His priorities were right, and that’s why he was rewarded with wins.That will forever be his legacy.”His toughness,” Barnhart said of what he will remember Brooks by. “He never blinked. He never wavered in the face of tough decisions. And just his bold-faced honesty. … He was who he was.”That more than anything is what I’ll miss about Rich Brooks: his candor, honesty, underrated sense of humor, approachability and general likability. In a time where honesty and hard work aren’t rewarded enough, Brooks taught us that it was OK to stick by your guns and to do things the right way.As journalists, we’re taught not root for the players, teams and coaches we cover. Yes, I know I work for UK Athletics now. But I too was a part of the working media before I started with UK, and often times I found myself rooting for the guy. How couldn’t you?Despite growing up and going to college in the midst of the “Ditch Mitch and Rich” days, I found myself pulling for him. I wanted him to win. I wanted him to succeed. And pardon me for not wanting the guy to leave. Without him, UK won’t be the same. I’ll never forget the playful jabs he had with reporters, the genuine love and care he showed for the players, and the honest and steadfast work he put in, in turning the UK football program around.The UK football program is better for having been a part of Brooks’ life. We all are better for having known Rich Brooks. I could go on and on about Brooks, a man I enjoyed covering and dealing with more than any other coach during my five years dealing and working with UK Athletics, but anymore of my rambling and I would be selling the man short.I rarely step back to the beat reporters around Lexington, but in this case (and given I’ve already written some 3,000 words on the matter today), I’m going to stop there and leave the rest to my much older and wiser counterparts to tell the entire story about Brooks, a man we’re all better for having known.
Read Dick Gabriel’s phenomenal in-depth relection of Brooks’ tenure as well as John Clay’s column on the sincerity of Brooks.
