Eastern Washington University Athletics

The first of EWU’s big-play receivers that have become synonymous with the Eastern Football program in recent years, Tony Brooks was an All-American and finished his career from 1990-93 with all four school receiving records. His 167 receptions were a record for 10 years and now rank 10th (entering the 2017 season); his 3,013 yards were a record for 12 seasons and are now sixth all-time; his 26 touchdowns were also a record for 12 years and now rank eighth; and his 18.0 average per catch remained as a record for four seasons and currently ranks fourth. On single season lists, his 60 catches in just 10 games in 1993 was a school record that has now been surpassed by 22 other performances in school history. He had 1,024 yards in 1993, representing just the second performance in school history with 1,000 or more receiving yards (there have now been 19 entering the 2017 season). He played on Eastern’s 1992 squad that shared the Big Sky Conference title with Idaho and advanced to the FCS Playoffs. Brooks was a third team NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (then known as I-AA) All-American in 1993, and earned first team All-Big Sky honors as both a junior and senior. Brooks was also selected to the Big Sky All-Academic team in each of his four seasons as an Eagle. In his final two years, the Eagles were 14-7, as EWU finished 5-6, 5-6, 7-4 and 7-3 in his four seasons. He signed a contract with Winnipeg of the CFL in 1994 before going into the insurance business. Brooks lettered for Eastern from 1990-93 and is from Tacoma, Wash., and Mount Tahoma High School. Eastern selected him to its “100 for 100” All-Time Team in 2008. In 1999, Dick Zornes selected him to the "Z" Team consisting of 36 players that he felt were the best players and made the largest contributions toward the 158 games Eastern won in Zornes' 26-year association with Eagle Football. Brooks is now a State Farm Insurance agent, and lives in his hometown of Tacoma. He plays an agent in a popular 2011 television commercial for State Farm. In it, he is credited for buying a couple a live falcon because he saved the family so much on insurance. In January 2016 he was announced as the winner of the Tom Oswald Memorial Award, which was created in 2007 in the memory of former Cheney High School coach Tom Oswald. Oswald succumbed to cancer on Aug. 4, 2006, and recipients are selected by the Eastern coaching staff for following Oswald's creed of "Doing the Right Thing" for youth. Tony and his wife, Leonor, graduated from Eastern in 1994. They have two children, Allie and Lisi, who both attend Lincoln High School in Tacoma where Brooks is an assistant football coach.