Bill Brooks (coach)

William J. "Bill" Brooks (born in Wilson, North Carolina) is an American and former baseball and basketball coach who is best known for developing the University of North Carolina at Wilmington athletics program from a junior college to a Division I school. Brooks graduated with an AB from Atlantic Christian College in 1948. In 1951 he was hired by Wilimgton College (now UNCW) hired Brooks as their athletic director, basketball coach, baseball coach and chairman of the health and physical education department. He directed the baseball team to a pair of national junior college baseball championships in 1961 and 1963 and also took the basketball team to the national tournament.

In 1975, he was named NAIA National Coach-of-the-Year and was inducted into the National Junior College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1990. Brooks became the first individual associated with UNC Wilmington to be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.