Brooks

DURHAM, North Carolina — Dan Brooks, a 1976 graduate of Baker High School and the head women’s golf coach at Duke University for almost 40 years, was recently inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Brooks, 63, who grew up in Baker City, is the son of Colleen Brooks and the late Howard Brooks.

His childhood home is just a block or so from Quail Ridge Golf Course.

He played golf at Oregon State University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in history in 1981.

He earned a master’s degree in liberal arts at Duke in 1996, where he has been the head women’s golf coach for 37 years.

During his tenure, the Blue Devils have won seven NCAA national championships — including three straight, 2005-07 — and 21 Atlantic Coast Conference titles.

His teams’ 140 victories are the most for any women’s golf coach in Division 1 history.

Brooks is also a seven-time national coach of the year, and a member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame, the Women’s Golf Coaches Hall of Fame, the Carolinas Golf Association Hall of Fame and the National Golf Coaches Association Hall.

Brooks has coached at least one first- or second-team All-American in each season at Duke, the only school to accomplish that feat.

Five Duke golfers have won National Player of the Year accolades.

In December 2020 Brooks was one of two coaches for the U.S. women’s team that competed in the annual Arnold Palmer Cup, an event that pits American college golfers against a team of players who are from outside the U.S. but who also play golf for an American college.