Robert Edgar Brodhead (December 20, 1936 – February 11, 1996) was an American

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

player, executive, and college athletics administrator. He was the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU) from 1982 to 1987. He is also the author of ''Sacked! The Dark Side of Sports at Louisiana State University'' () Brodhead attended

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, where he played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

on the

Duke Blue Devils football The Duke Blue Devils football team represents Duke University in the sport of American football. The Blue Devils compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Coastal Division of th ...

team. During that time he led the Blue Devils to the

1958 Orange Bowl The 1958 Orange Bowl matched the Duke Blue Devils and the Oklahoma Sooners, played in Miami, Florida, on New Year's Day. Background This was Duke's second Orange Bowl appearance in four seasons, having last appeared in January 1955. They finish ...

and shared the quarterback position with

Sonny Jurgensen Christian Adolph "Sonny" Jurgensen III (born August 23, 1934) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins. He was inducted int ...

. Brodhead was drafted by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

in 1958 but went on active duty in the armed services before being able to join the Browns. After his discharge, he played for the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) in 1959, as backup to

Don Allard Donald J. Allard (April 21, 1936 – May 4, 2002) was an American college and professional football quarterback selected by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 1959 NFL Draft. He played college football at Boston College, and played ...

. In 1960, he signed with the upstart

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

of the fledgling

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL). He played one season, in 1960, for the Bills, starting one game and scoring two points before having a brief stint with the CFL's

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

. In 1961, he embarked on a career in minor league football with the Canton Bulldogs and Cleveland Bulldogs in the United Football League and then, in 1965 and 1966 with the

Philadelphia Bulldogs ''For the Continental Football League team (1960s) known as the Philadelphia Bulldogs, see here.'' The Philadelphia Bulldogs were an inline hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were members of the Atlantic Division of the East ...

of the

Continental Football League The Continental Football League (COFL) was a professional American football minor league that operated in North America from 1965 through 1969. It was established following the collapse of the original United Football League, and hoped to beco ...

. He led the Bulldogs to the Continental Football League title in 1966 with a win over the Orlando Panthers, and then, at age 29, was named business manager of the Cleveland Browns. Brodhead was elected to the Minor League Football Hall of Fame for his career with the Canton/Cleveland/Philadelphia Bulldogs. Brodhead remained with the Browns until 1970, when he was named general manager of the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

. He later became the CFO of the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

before heading to LSU as athletic director (AD) in 1981. He was hired by LSU for his financial acumen after deposed athletic director Paul Dietzel created a million-dollar budget deficit. Brodhead was the general manager of the Portland Thunder of the World Football League in 1975. Brodhead was the head coach for one game after he fired head coach, Greg Barton. After his one-game stint as the Thunder head coach, Brodhead hired Joe Gardi to take over for the remainder of the season. The World Football League folded on October 22, 1975. Brodhead hired

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach

Skip Bertman Stanley "Skip" Bertman (born May 23, 1938) is a former college baseball coach and athletic director at Louisiana State University (LSU). He led the LSU Tigers baseball team to five College World Series championships and seven Southeastern Confere ...

, who revived the moribund program and took the Bayou Bengals to unprecedented heights, guiding LSU to five national championships (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and 11 trips to the College World Series in 18 seasons (1984-2001). Bertman became LSU's athletic director upon his retirement from the diamond, remaining in the position through June 2008. In football, Brodhead inherited coach

Jerry Stovall Jerry Lane Stovall (born April 30, 1941) is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played college football at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was a unanimous selection to the 1962 College F ...

, an LSU All-American running back and safety in the early 1960s, and fired him following a 4-7 season in 1983. Stovall lost three of his last four games in 1982 and was a winless 0-6 in the Southeastern Conference in 1983. Brodhead replaced Stovall with

Bill Arnsparger William Stephen Arnsparger (December 16, 1926 – July 17, 2015) was an American college and professional football coach. He was born and raised in Paris, Kentucky, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, and graduated from Mi ...

, the architect of the

' "No-Name Defense" of the early 1970s. Arnsparger went 26-8-3 in three seasons and coached LSU to the 1986 SEC championship and two

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

berths. By comparison, Stovall was 0-6 in the SEC in his third year while Arnsparger won the SEC championship in his third year. Another highly successful Brodhead hire was women's basketball coach

Sue Gunter Sue Gunter (May 22, 1939 – August 4, 2005) was an American women's college basketball coach. She is best known as the head coach of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Lady Tigers basketball team. Gunter was inducted into the Women's Basketbal ...

, who coached at LSU for 22 seasons and guided the Lady Tigers to the NCAA tournament 14 times, including the Final Four in her final campaign of 2003-04. During Brodhead's tenure, LSU men's basketball under coach Dale Brown reached the Final Four in 1986. Brodhead later was a radio personality in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

and for a time the AD at

Southeastern Louisiana University Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it becam ...

in nearby

Hammond Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodhead, Bob 1936 births 1999 deaths American football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks Buffalo Bills players Cleveland Browns executives Duke Blue Devils football players Edmonton Elks players Houston Oilers executives Miami Dolphins executives LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers athletic directors National Football League general managers Saskatchewan Roughriders players Southeastern Louisiana Lions and Lady Lions athletic directors United Football League (1961–1964) players Continental Football League players People from Kittanning, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania American Football League players

See also

References