Tommy Prothro (July 20, 1920 – May 14, 1995) is widely regarded as Oregon State’s most successful football coach, leading the Beavers to the Rose Bowl twice in ten years.
Born in 1920, Prothro grew up in Memphis and played quarterback and halfback at Duke University between 1938 and 1941. He helped the Blue Devils reach the 1942 Rose Bowl against Oregon State which was played at Duke following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He also played lacrosse and baseball.
Prothro turned to coaching immediately after college, becoming an assistant at Western Kentucky in 1942. Following military service in the Navy, Prothro became an assistant at Vanderbilt for three seasons and moved to UCLA along with head coach Henry Russell Sanders in 1949. As backfield coach, Prothro fine-tuned the single-wing offense and UCLA won the national title in 1954. Oregon State, which had won just six games the previous three seasons, hired him as head coach in 1955.
Oregon State won six games in Prothro’s first season and then reached the Rose Bowl in his second. The Beavers, behind Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker, played in the Liberty Bowl in 1962 then returned to the Rose Bowl in 1965. In ten years, Prothro led the Beavers to a 63-37-2 record.
In 1965, UCLA hired Prothro and he guided the Bruins to the Rose Bowl in the first of his six seasons at the school. Prothro went on to coach in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams (1971-72) and the San Diego Chargers (1974-78).
Always well-dressed on the sideline, Coach Prothro loved his routines including his Friday night motivational notes to his players and pre-game steak dinners. He was a competitive bridge player.
In sixteen seasons as a college head coach, Prothro compiled a 104-55-5 record. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1991. He is also a member of the UCLA and Oregon State halls of fame.