Rich Brooks: Grandfather to the World
By Paul Jordan
Rich Brooks revived a football program that many thought was dead, and brought a small sliver of joy into the lives of Bluegrass oblong fans. He gave fans one of the best years in modern era, and he was alive during the last “good era” of UK football, when Wah–Wah Jones played tight end and he had never even heard of your new-fangled internet. If he thinks something is bulls**t, by golly he’ll let you know about it. He likes scotch, his old leather recliner, and maintaining his backyard. He is….everyone’s grandpa.
Rich Brooks, while coaching Kentucky’s football team, was told to start a Twitter account so people could keep up with his random thoughts and possibly late-breaking information. “What the hell do I do with it,” Rich asked,” and what the hell is a Twitter?”. “You just get on your computer and type out a short blurb on what’s going on,” they responded, “it’s the future!”. Well Rich Brooks thought your future was bulls**t, and he rode off into the sunset of retirement. One would expect his Twitter account to fall by the wayside, a reverse relic that would begin to collect digital dust and slowly be covered by the fast paced movement of the world. But Rich Brooks is too hard to let something die, whether it’s football programs or Twitter accounts. So he decided to contribute the only way he knew how, by being Rich Brooks.
Rich Brooks’ Twitter account still has 16,000+ followers, a lofty number considering the man has been retired since January. But when you look at his activity, you realize why… it’s the Grandpa Fix. My grandparents passed away some time ago, but I always miss the conversations we had. The phone call in which you sit and listen to the daily activities of your pater familius and listen as politely as possible while trying to keep the volume down on your video game. Yes, grandpa, it rained here too…yeah I can’t believe it rained somewhere AND two hours away from you. I’m sure the birdfeeder is fine….and so on, we’ve all had the conversation. But Rich Brooks gives us the opportunity if we have suffered the withdrawals, and Twitter is thy name. Just check out these gems that were recently posted by Ole Coach:
May 21st 6:19 am:Burned a slash pile yesterday and also played 18 hole of ugly golf. Going for a walk with Karen. (Fun fact for Paul: a slash pile is a collection of brush and weeds that were trimmed and consolidated for easier burning)
May 15th 1:16 pm:Just rode my Harley out to Boyds and bought some fresh strawberry’s. They are taste very good. (Lest you forget that he is indeed a badass)
May 10th 8:22 am:Good friends Mike and Shelia Schwartz are comming in for a visit today. It will be good to see them. (Doesn’t everyone’s grandparent’s do this? Tell you about people you don’t know who are visiting?)
Now every grandpa has a source of pride in his garden. My grandfather’s was his persimmon trees (don’t ask), but Rich has tomato plants. His earlier excitement over tomatoes is well documented, but here’s an update.
May 8th 12:54 pm:Just planted two tomato plants with some already growing. Hope they produce a bunch.
And finally, every grandpa loves to tell you about the fishing.
May 18th 4:59 pm:
Got some new popper fly’s and caught about 25 bluegill and 10 bass lots of fun on a fly rod.
May 17th 7:21 pm:
Just caught some big bluegill and a large mouth bass on my fly rod out back in my pond.
You can’t get news like that from Ashton Kutcher’s twitter(most subscribed feed? come on). So if you’re ever in need of an old time-y conversation, sit back on a plastic covered couch and sign in to Twitter, Coach Brooks will be waiting for you. At least you don’t have to listen to the pattern of grandma’s bowel movements.Got some new popper fly’s and caught about 25 bluegill and 10 bass lots of fun on a fly rod.
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