Former FSU and Buccaneers star is going to complete the Hall of Fame trifecta
Former Florida State and Tampa Bay Bucs legend Derrick Brooks is getting another honor for his playing career.
Already a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, Brooks was announced as a selection for the National Federation of State High School Associations’ 2019 Hall of Fame class.
Brooks, who grew up in Florida’s panhandle in Pensacola, was a high school All-American at Booker T. Washington High and USA Today named him their National Defensive Player of the Year for his senior season.
His final two years at the Pensacola high school yielded 29 sacks and more than 300 tackles. That led to USA Today naming Brooks to their All-Time High School Football Team in 2001, the Florida High School Athletic Association naming him to their All-Century team in 2007 and the FHSAA inducting him into their Hall of Fame in 2015.
Brooks joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 after a stellar 14-year pro career where he was a first-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Bucs out of FSU.
He was a six-time first-team All-Pro, 11-time Pro Bowl selection, Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year winner in 2002 and a Super Bowl winner in 2002.
Brooks’ stellar career at FSU, where he was a two-time All-American, earned him an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
The NFHS Hall of Fame ceremony is held June 30 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Brooks is one of 12 people inducted, but the only one from Florida.
Others receiving induction in 2019 are: former MLB manager and player Dusty Baker, former Indiana University and NBA player Damon Bailey, WNBA star and former LSU player Seimone Augustus, field hockey legend Tracey Fuchs, former Texas high school football coach D.W. Rutledge, former Mississippi baseball coach Jerry Boatner, Oklahoma high school coach Joe Gilbert, administrators Charles W. Whitten (Illinois) and Bob Gardner (Indiana), former Tennessee official Bob Stout and Ginny Honomichl, who was the first female to serve as president of the Kansas Coaches Association and NFHS Coaches Association.
