Leo M. Brooks
Track & Field Champion and Youth Sports Leader
Leo M. Brooks (1909–1994) was one of Carthage’s earliest and most accomplished athletes, remembered for his excellence in track and field and his lifelong dedication to youth sports.
Born May 22, 1909, in La Russell, Missouri, to Mr. and Mrs. L. F. Brooks, Leo moved to Carthage as a child and graduated from Carthage High School in 1927. A true multi-sport competitor, he excelled in basketball, bowling, rifle shooting, and swimming, but it was in the high jump where he gained regional and national recognition.
As captain of the 1927 Carthage High School track team, Brooks set the Southwest Missouri high school record at 6’0” and won numerous meets, often placing in multiple events. That same year, he placed first in Missouri’s all-comers state meet with a jump of 5’9”, then traveled to Chicago for the National High School Track Meet, where he earned second place nationally with a leap of 6’1” against more than 1,000 athletes from 182 schools.
Brooks continued his athletic career at William Jewell College and Ozark Wesleyan College, where he studied physical education and coaching. In 1929, while at Ozark Wesleyan, he scored 30 points in a single track meet by winning six events, including a 6’2” high jump. The following year, representing the Carthage YMCA at the Kansas City Athletic Meet, he tied for first place in the high jump against collegiate stars from across the Midwest, clearing 6’1¼”.
In 1931, Brooks returned to Carthage to serve as physical director of the YMCA, a role he held until 1947. During his tenure, he taught more than 1,800 boys to swim and helped guide YMCA teams to state and national championships in basketball, swimming, softball, volleyball, and bowling.
An authority on sports rules and officiating, Brooks once earned the highest score in the nation on a five-sport rules interpretation exam. He went on to serve as a voting member on national rules-making bodies for basketball, bowling, volleyball, swimming, and softball, contributing to the development of amateur athletics across the country.
Brooks died in 1994 at the age of 84 and is buried in Park Cemetery in Carthage. Countless boys and young men learned both athletic skills and good sportsmanship from Leo Brooks, an outstanding athlete and mentor from the early 20th century.
