Ralph Dieter Brock (born February 12, 1951) is a former

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) and

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) player and coach. He is best remembered as the quarterback for the CFL

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

where he led the league in passing for four years.

Early life

Brock was born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. He attended

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

and

Jacksonville State University Jacksonville State University (JSU) is a public university in Jacksonville, Alabama. Founded in 1883, Jacksonville State offers programs of study in six academic schools leading to bachelor's degree, bachelor's, master's degree, master's, educati ...

, and graduated from Jacksonville State University in 1974.

Professional career

After college graduation, Brock signed a one-year contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and was a starting quarterback in 1975. Nicknamed "The Birmingham Rifle," Brock is only one of two Blue Bombers players to win back-to-back CFL Most Outstanding Player awards in the

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and

1981 CFL season The 1981 CFL season is considered to be the 28th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 24th Canadian Football League season. CFL News in 1981 The Eastern and Western Football Conferences, which had carried on as ...

s. In 1981, Brock broke

Sam Etcheverry Samuel "The Rifle" Etcheverry (May 20, 1930 – August 29, 2009) was a professional American football, American and Canadian football player and head coach. Etcheverry played the quarterback position, most famously with the Montreal Alouettes of ...

's 1956 record of 4,723 passing yards with 4,796 yards. Brock started his illustrious pro football career as a little used back-up quarterback for the Bombers in 1974. That season the team traded away their aging star passer

Don Jonas Donald Walter Jonas (born December 3, 1938) is a former American football player and coach. Jonas played in the American minor leagues (semi-pro) and the Canadian Football League. He was also the first head coach of the UCF Knights (1979–1981). ...

to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the much younger

Chuck Ealey Charles "Chuck" Ealey (born January 6, 1950) is a former American Canadian football player for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He became the first black quarterback to win the ...

. About midway through the 1975 season Brock became the starter and that resulted in Ealey being sent to the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

. In 1983, Brock was traded to the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

for quarterback

Tom Clements Thomas Albert Clements (born June 18, 1953) is an American football coach and a former Canadian Football League (CFL) quarterback who is the quarterbacks coach for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He also served as a ...

. This trade led to an exciting

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

in 1984, as the Tiger-Cats and Blue Bombers faced each other in the championship game. Brock's Tiger-Cat team lost the game to Clements's Blue Bombers 47-17 and Brock ended his career with many accomplishments, but without a Grey Cup victory. Brock left the CFL after ten seasons and joined the

for the 1985 season. In what would be his only season playing in the NFL, Brock signed with the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

as a 34-year-old rookie, setting the NFL record for oldest rookie quarterback in history. Despite the team's star running back

Eric Dickerson Eric Demetric Dickerson (born September 2, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Dickerson played college football for the Mustangs of Southern Me ...

holding out the first two games over a contract dispute, Brock led the team to a 7-0 start, a feat no other quarterback would accomplish in their first season with a team again until

Ben Roethlisberger Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. (; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college footba ...

started 13-0 with the Steelers in 2004. Brock led the team to a division title, the #2 seed in the NFC playoffs, and set team rookie records for passing yards (2,658), touchdown passes (16), and passer rating (81.8) (most of his rookie passing records have since been broken). Brock's final game was the 1985

NFC Championship Game The NFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the National Football Conference (NFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...

against the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, where he only managed 66 yards passing and lost a fumble that

Wilber Marshall Wilber Buddyhia Marshall (born April 18, 1962) is an American former professional football player who was a outside linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for five teams from 1984 until 1995. Marshall played college football for the F ...

returned for a touchdown to close out the scoring in a 24-0 game. In the 1986 preseason, Brock suffered an injury to his left knee on a tackle by

Bo Eason Bo Eason (born March 10, 1961) is an American actor, playwright, author, motivational speaker, and retired football player who played safety for four seasons for the Houston Oilers. Early life Eason was born and raised in Walnut Grove, Califor ...

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 ...

in the first exhibition game on August 2. Brock underwent arthroscopic knee surgery the following week and went on the injured reserve list the next month. Although the Rams had

Steve Bartkowski Steven Joseph Bartkowski (born November 12, 1952) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Atlanta Falcons (1975–1985) and the Los Angeles Rams (1986). He was a tw ...

as backup, they elected to deal with the Oilers and their new draft pick

Jim Everett James Samuel Everett III (born January 3, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the Los Angeles Rams. He played college football for the Purdue Boilermak ...

(who they had a dispute with over signing). When Brock did tests with the team later in the month to test his knee, he aggravated his back (which he stated had been a chronic problem since 1982). Tests revealed he had a "degenerative disk in his lower back", one that could not be corrected by surgery due to the nature of his throwing position, in which he would wrench his back each time he moved to let go of a pass (cortisone injections proved futile). One of five quarterbacks on the roster, he was released by the team after the a year ended; he chose to move on from playing football to a coaching career. Brock still holds the Blue Bombers record for career passing yards with 29,623. In 2005, for the commemoration of the Blue Bombers 75th anniversary, Brock was named one of the 20 All-Time Blue Bomber Greats. He was elected into the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

in 1995.

In popular culture

In every episode of the Dave Dameshek Football Program on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Dave and Adam Rank compete in who can make the best organic reference to Dieter Brock. He appeared as a guest on their 100th episode.

References

External links

Canadian Football Hall of Fame profile
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Just Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brock, Dieter 1951 births Living people Alabama State Hornets football coaches American football quarterbacks Players of Canadian football from Birmingham, Alabama Auburn Tigers football coaches Auburn Tigers football players Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners Canadian football quarterbacks Cumberland Phoenix football coaches Edmonton Elks coaches Hamilton Tiger-Cats coaches Hamilton Tiger-Cats players High school football coaches in Alabama Jacksonville State Gamecocks football players Los Angeles Rams players Ottawa Rough Riders coaches Players of American football from Birmingham, Alabama Sportspeople from Birmingham, Alabama Tusculum Pioneers football coaches UAB Blazers football coaches Winnipeg Blue Bombers players