Herbert Benjamin "Deke" Brackett (January 2, 1911 – November 14, 1970) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach. Brackett 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 ...

at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

from 1931 to 1933. He played in the same backfield as halfback

Beattie Feathers William Beattie "Big Chief" Feathers (August 20, 1909 – March 11, 1979) was an American football player and coach of football and baseball. He played college football and college basketball at the University of Tennessee. Early life and colle ...

, future

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

r and NFL All-Decade Team member. After graduating, Brackett remained at Tennessee as an assistant. After stints at

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

and

Hampden-Sydney Hampden Sydney is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. Hampden Sydney is the home of Hampden–Sydney College, a private all-male college that is the tenth- ...

, he returned to Tennessee as an assistant to new head coach John Barnhill. Brackett followed Barnhill to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

in 1946. Following Barnhill's resignation after the 1949 season, Brackett moved to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

where he was the Bruins' backfield coach until 1962. Brackett returned to coaching as an assistant with the

Orlando Panthers The Orlando Panthers were a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida. Founded in 1958 as the Franklin Miners, the team spent its first four years in the Eastern Football Conference, then three further years in the Atlantic Coas ...

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 returned to college football in 1968 when his head coach with the Panthers,

Perry Moss Perry Lee Moss (August 4, 1926 – August 7, 2014) was an American football player, coach, and executive. Moss played tailback at the University of Tulsa and quarterback at Illinois during the 1940s. As a Tulsa tailback, he was on the Orange Bo ...

hired him to work on his staff at

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

. Brackett died in the 1970 plane crash that killed most of the Marshall football team and coaching staff and several team boosters. Brackett was supposed to go on a recruiting trip with fellow assistant

William "Red" Dawson William Alfred "Red" Dawson (born December 4, 1942) is a former American football player and assistant coach for Marshall University. He was nicknamed "Red" for his red hair. Playing career The Valdosta, Georgia native attended Florida State U ...

, however graduate assistant Gail Parker gave Brackett his seat and went on the recruiting trip instead.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brackett, Deke 1911 births 1970 deaths American football quarterbacks Arkansas Razorbacks football coaches Continental Football League coaches Hampden–Sydney Tigers football coaches Marshall Thundering Herd football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football players The Citadel Bulldogs football coaches UCLA Bruins football coaches Accidental deaths in West Virginia Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States