Member of the College Football Hall of Fame, he was Head Football Coach (NCAA) for both the Oregon State Beavers (1950's-60's) and the UCLA Bruins (1960's). Producing two Heisman trophy winning quarterbacks, Tommy was the only coach to date to take two different schools to the Rose Bowl in successive years. While coaching UCLA he was named College Football Coach of the Year (1965).
In the 1970's he coached in the NFL as Head Football Coach of the Los Angeles Rams & of the San Diego Chargers after which he served as the Cleveland Browns' Vice President of Player Personnel (late 1970's-early 80's).
Prior to his OSU stint, his 1st as a head coach, he served in the following assistant football coaching positions:
Western Kentucky State Hilltoppers (1942),
Vanderbilt University Commodores (1946-48), and
UCLA Bruins (1948-54, including 1952 National Champions).
At Vanderbilt & UCLA he coached under Henry R. "Red" Sanders (Find A Grave Memorial #120429258).
Son of Dr. J. Thompson "Doc" Prothro (a well known baseball player/manager, team & ball park owner, cotton planter, & real estate investor) and Katherine Cates Prothro of Cates' Landing, TN, Tommy grew up in Memphis, TN. He attended Central High in Memphis, then Riverside Military Academy in Gainsville, GA, lettering in four sports at both. At Riverside he played football for "Red" Sanders.
He went to Duke University in Durham, NC, and served as President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. (Years later he was elected SAE national Man of the Year.) At Duke Tommy played football for Wallace Wade and was signal caller for his undefeated, untied, & unscored-upon Blue Devil football team. That team played in the historical "transplanted" Rose Bowl in Durham, NC, on 1/1/1942, the year he graduated. It was the only Rose Bowl not played in Pasadena, CA. As 1/1/42 was only weeks after the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl was moved that year from the West Coast due to fears the large event might suffer an air attack by the Japanese.
In WWII he served in the US Navy achieving the rank of 1st Lt., sailing on board the carrier USS Breton as a gunnery officer. Tommy's uncle, USMC Gen. Clifton B. Cates, was in charge of the 4th Division at Iwo Jima and was later 19th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Gen. Cates' son, Tommy's cousin C.B.C., Jr., was also a naval officer serving in the Pacific.
About a week before Pearl Harbor, in November of 1941 Tommy was married (the first of two times) to his prep school sweetheart, Ann Murrell Gorin, neither marriage lasting, though producing his only child in 1943, a daughter Ann Gorin Prothro. He later married Shirley Alice Seagle of Memphis and they made their home on the West Coast for many years before returning to Memphis in the early 1980's. He died at home after a long battle with cancer.
In the 1970's he coached in the NFL as Head Football Coach of the Los Angeles Rams & of the San Diego Chargers after which he served as the Cleveland Browns' Vice President of Player Personnel (late 1970's-early 80's).
Prior to his OSU stint, his 1st as a head coach, he served in the following assistant football coaching positions:
Western Kentucky State Hilltoppers (1942),
Vanderbilt University Commodores (1946-48), and
UCLA Bruins (1948-54, including 1952 National Champions).
At Vanderbilt & UCLA he coached under Henry R. "Red" Sanders (Find A Grave Memorial #120429258).
Son of Dr. J. Thompson "Doc" Prothro (a well known baseball player/manager, team & ball park owner, cotton planter, & real estate investor) and Katherine Cates Prothro of Cates' Landing, TN, Tommy grew up in Memphis, TN. He attended Central High in Memphis, then Riverside Military Academy in Gainsville, GA, lettering in four sports at both. At Riverside he played football for "Red" Sanders.
He went to Duke University in Durham, NC, and served as President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. (Years later he was elected SAE national Man of the Year.) At Duke Tommy played football for Wallace Wade and was signal caller for his undefeated, untied, & unscored-upon Blue Devil football team. That team played in the historical "transplanted" Rose Bowl in Durham, NC, on 1/1/1942, the year he graduated. It was the only Rose Bowl not played in Pasadena, CA. As 1/1/42 was only weeks after the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl was moved that year from the West Coast due to fears the large event might suffer an air attack by the Japanese.
In WWII he served in the US Navy achieving the rank of 1st Lt., sailing on board the carrier USS Breton as a gunnery officer. Tommy's uncle, USMC Gen. Clifton B. Cates, was in charge of the 4th Division at Iwo Jima and was later 19th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Gen. Cates' son, Tommy's cousin C.B.C., Jr., was also a naval officer serving in the Pacific.
About a week before Pearl Harbor, in November of 1941 Tommy was married (the first of two times) to his prep school sweetheart, Ann Murrell Gorin, neither marriage lasting, though producing his only child in 1943, a daughter Ann Gorin Prothro. He later married Shirley Alice Seagle of Memphis and they made their home on the West Coast for many years before returning to Memphis in the early 1980's. He died at home after a long battle with cancer.
Member of the College Football Hall of Fame, he was Head Football Coach (NCAA) for both the Oregon State Beavers (1950's-60's) and the UCLA Bruins (1960's). Producing two Heisman trophy winning quarterbacks, Tommy was the only coach to date to take two different schools to the Rose Bowl in successive years. While coaching UCLA he was named College Football Coach of the Year (1965).
In the 1970's he coached in the NFL as Head Football Coach of the Los Angeles Rams & of the San Diego Chargers after which he served as the Cleveland Browns' Vice President of Player Personnel (late 1970's-early 80's).
Prior to his OSU stint, his 1st as a head coach, he served in the following assistant football coaching positions:
Western Kentucky State Hilltoppers (1942),
Vanderbilt University Commodores (1946-48), and
UCLA Bruins (1948-54, including 1952 National Champions).
At Vanderbilt & UCLA he coached under Henry R. "Red" Sanders (Find A Grave Memorial #120429258).
Son of Dr. J. Thompson "Doc" Prothro (a well known baseball player/manager, team & ball park owner, cotton planter, & real estate investor) and Katherine Cates Prothro of Cates' Landing, TN, Tommy grew up in Memphis, TN. He attended Central High in Memphis, then Riverside Military Academy in Gainsville, GA, lettering in four sports at both. At Riverside he played football for "Red" Sanders.
He went to Duke University in Durham, NC, and served as President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. (Years later he was elected SAE national Man of the Year.) At Duke Tommy played football for Wallace Wade and was signal caller for his undefeated, untied, & unscored-upon Blue Devil football team. That team played in the historical "transplanted" Rose Bowl in Durham, NC, on 1/1/1942, the year he graduated. It was the only Rose Bowl not played in Pasadena, CA. As 1/1/42 was only weeks after the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl was moved that year from the West Coast due to fears the large event might suffer an air attack by the Japanese.
In WWII he served in the US Navy achieving the rank of 1st Lt., sailing on board the carrier USS Breton as a gunnery officer. Tommy's uncle, USMC Gen. Clifton B. Cates, was in charge of the 4th Division at Iwo Jima and was later 19th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Gen. Cates' son, Tommy's cousin C.B.C., Jr., was also a naval officer serving in the Pacific.
About a week before Pearl Harbor, in November of 1941 Tommy was married (the first of two times) to his prep school sweetheart, Ann Murrell Gorin, neither marriage lasting, though producing his only child in 1943, a daughter Ann Gorin Prothro. He later married Shirley Alice Seagle of Memphis and they made their home on the West Coast for many years before returning to Memphis in the early 1980's. He died at home after a long battle with cancer.
In the 1970's he coached in the NFL as Head Football Coach of the Los Angeles Rams & of the San Diego Chargers after which he served as the Cleveland Browns' Vice President of Player Personnel (late 1970's-early 80's).
Prior to his OSU stint, his 1st as a head coach, he served in the following assistant football coaching positions:
Western Kentucky State Hilltoppers (1942),
Vanderbilt University Commodores (1946-48), and
UCLA Bruins (1948-54, including 1952 National Champions).
At Vanderbilt & UCLA he coached under Henry R. "Red" Sanders (Find A Grave Memorial #120429258).
Son of Dr. J. Thompson "Doc" Prothro (a well known baseball player/manager, team & ball park owner, cotton planter, & real estate investor) and Katherine Cates Prothro of Cates' Landing, TN, Tommy grew up in Memphis, TN. He attended Central High in Memphis, then Riverside Military Academy in Gainsville, GA, lettering in four sports at both. At Riverside he played football for "Red" Sanders.
He went to Duke University in Durham, NC, and served as President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. (Years later he was elected SAE national Man of the Year.) At Duke Tommy played football for Wallace Wade and was signal caller for his undefeated, untied, & unscored-upon Blue Devil football team. That team played in the historical "transplanted" Rose Bowl in Durham, NC, on 1/1/1942, the year he graduated. It was the only Rose Bowl not played in Pasadena, CA. As 1/1/42 was only weeks after the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl was moved that year from the West Coast due to fears the large event might suffer an air attack by the Japanese.
In WWII he served in the US Navy achieving the rank of 1st Lt., sailing on board the carrier USS Breton as a gunnery officer. Tommy's uncle, USMC Gen. Clifton B. Cates, was in charge of the 4th Division at Iwo Jima and was later 19th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Gen. Cates' son, Tommy's cousin C.B.C., Jr., was also a naval officer serving in the Pacific.
About a week before Pearl Harbor, in November of 1941 Tommy was married (the first of two times) to his prep school sweetheart, Ann Murrell Gorin, neither marriage lasting, though producing his only child in 1943, a daughter Ann Gorin Prothro. He later married Shirley Alice Seagle of Memphis and they made their home on the West Coast for many years before returning to Memphis in the early 1980's. He died at home after a long battle with cancer.
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