Bob Brooks remembered by family, friends and colleagues

CEDAR RAPIDS, Ia. — Bob Brooks was many things during his seven-decade long career.

Brooks was a hall-of-fame broadcaster that covered University of Iowa sports for 57 years, worked radio and television and did play-by-play.

He was a true gentleman and a genuine legend in his field.

Brooks was a 10-time Iowa Sportscaster of the Year, a college football hall-of-fame member and a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the Cedar Rapids minor league baseball organization.

On Wednesday, family, friends, colleagues and fans of the legendary eastern Iowa broadcaster who died last month at the age of 89 gathered at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids to celebrate everything about Brooks.

“I think this is only something that Bob Brooks could bring together in the cross section of people I see in audience,” former Cedar Rapids Washington and University of Iowa football player Bill Happel said. “The high school coaches from across the city of Cedar Rapids, administrators, principals, media people from all areas and of course the University of Iowa people here, it really spans generations.”

A Cedar Rapids native, Brooks was a 1944 graduate of Franklin High School in Cedar Rapids.

He began his career in broadcasting in high school as an intern at WSUI in 1943.

“He was a celebrity at Franklin High School,” longtime friend and fellow Franklin graduate Bill Quinby said. “He was doing broadcasting for Iowa football, Iowa basketball for WSUI and he was only in high school, he started in 1943. That’s remarkable.”

Brooks took his first job at KCRG in 1946, and continued working in the radio and television industry in his hometown throughout his career.

He worked at KHAK from 1977 to 2000 and from KMRY to 2000 to 2016.

Brooks was the first to broadcast a game from the pressbox at Kingston Stadium in 1952.

In 2011, that same pressbox was named after Brooks.

“The impact that Bob had on so many high school athletes, he spread that proverbial 15 seconds of fame across thousands of kids,” Happel said.

In addition to prep sports, Brooks covered Iowa football for over 65 years including all six of the Hawkeyes' Rose Bowl appearances.

“I think Bob Brooks is the only person in Iowa history that attended all six Iowa Rose Bowls,” longtime Iowa athletic trainer John Streif said. “That is an amazing accomplishment.”

Those closest to Brooks on Wednesday recalled exactly what made him return to work daily for better than 70 years.

His son Rob, also a sportscaster, remembered his incredible devotion to his craft.

“Everything kind of revolved around sports and what you kind of saw is what you got, whether you grew up with him in a household or you saw him at Nelson’s or Kinnick Stadium or right here,” he said. "That’s kind of the way he was and the fact he was able to work for so long I know meant a lot to him.”