About Inductee

Rodney Brooks was born in Huntsville in 1960 and has been a lifetime resident of Madison County. He started his successful athletic career in the youth leagues of Huntsville and continued that success at Chapman Middle School where he excelled in football, basketball and baseball. During his high school career at Lee High School, Rod was an outstanding quarterback and defensive back for three years. At the end of his senior year, he was selected as the most outstanding back at Lee High School and was elected as permanent captain of the team. After being recruited by several colleges, Rod made the decision to sign a scholarship with the University of North Alabama in 1980. Over the next four years, he was to become one of the finest football players to ever play at the University of North Alabama. In his junior year, he was rewarded for his outstanding play against Troy State by being named as player of the week by the Gulf South Conference. This was only the first of many honors that were to come his way in 1982. He was selected as a member of the first team All Gulf South Conference as well as Honorable Mention All-American during that year. In 1983, during his senior year, he was also named to the All Gulf South Conference Team. His teammates at UNA also selected him as their most outstanding back after his senior year. He still holds the single season record for interceptions at 8 and the career interceptions record at 17. During the time that Rod played at UNA, they had an outstanding record of 36-8-1 and were conference champions two times. Rod was later selected on UNAs 50th Anniversary Team and was inducted into the UNA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004. Rod says that his parents had the most influence on his life because they taught him respect at an early age. I think that is a key factor in being successful in anything you do reflected Rod. Coach Childress, my high school coach, had the ability at getting more talent out of someone than they had within themselves, Rod said, He is a big part of why I am here today. Coach Grubb at UNA taught me the difference between a winner and a champion was only about one inch. The one thing that they all taught me was to never be out worked.