Newswise — Building on the past success of the Maker's Mark/Keeneland charitable bottle series that supports projects at the University of Kentucky, Maker's Mark and Keeneland are continuing the program with the celebration of UK football coach Rich Brooks, whose likeness will be featured on the bottle label. Coach Brooks has led the Wildcats to multiple wins in bowl competition and is the first coach to win three consecutive bowl games in UK Athletics history.
This year, the coach will join forces with University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Maker's Mark and Keeneland to raise money for a unique extension program highlighting the performing arts for elementary schoolchildren throughout the Commonwealth.
Maker's Mark will donate its proceeds from the sales " estimated to be about $200,000 from 18,000 bottles " to an extension program bringing the UK Symphony Orchestra and students from the UK School of Music into public schools and communities throughout Kentucky. UK is in the process of securing matching grants that, if sales of the bottles are successful, may create funding for this unique program in excess of $1.2 million.
"The performances around Kentucky funded by this program will be tremendous for our students in the UK Orchestra, the children who will participate in the programs, and the communities who will hear the concerts," said John Nardolillo, director of UK Symphony Orchestra. "Maker's Mark and Keeneland are doing something which will have a lasting impact at the university and around the Commonwealth."
In a time when budgets do not allow for extensive arts programs in public schools, this three-phase program developed by Nardolillo will introduce third and fourth grade students throughout Kentucky to the joy of music and the performing arts.
Maker's Mark President Bill Samuels Jr. said, "Celebrating Coach Brooks this year is appropriate as he truly brought life back into the football program. More important is his dedication to education. This is also a wonderful way to show how collegiate athletics can support the greater good of the university and education throughout the Commonwealth."
Samuels added, "If the bottles sell, we will look at supporting this program with a three-year series as we did for the (UK) Markey Cancer Center, where this partnership created $3 million for clinical cancer research."
Born in Forest, Calif., Brooks was a football player at Oregon State University. He began coaching after graduation and held assistant coaching jobs at Norte Del Rio High School, Oregon State, UCLA, and with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League.
His first head coaching job was at the University of Oregon from 1977 to 1994, when he took the Ducks to bowl games in four of his last six seasons. In 1994, Oregon won the Pacific-10 Conference championship and played in the Rose Bowl, earning Brooks National Coach of the Year honors from the Football Writers Association of America (Bear Bryant Award), The Sporting News and ESPN.
Brooks returned to the NFL as head coach of the St. Louis Rams in 1995, where he compiled the team's best two-year record in nearly a decade. He then spent the next four seasons as assistant head coach/defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, helping guide the team to the only Super Bowl appearance in the franchise's history.
Brooks took over at Kentucky in December 2002. After three years, Brooks' squad had a breakout season in 2006, finishing 8-5 and winning the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl over heavily favored Clemson. The 2007 season produced another 8-5 record, including a victory over eventual national champion Louisiana State University and Music City Bowl win over Florida State. The 2008 squad fought its way to another postseason appearance with a 7-6 record, capped by a victory over East Carolina in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. In the process, Brooks joined Paul "Bear" Bryant as the only two coaches in school history to reach the postseason in three consecutive years, and marked the first time that UK won bowl games in three consecutive seasons. Brooks has been named to the Northern California Sports Association Hall of Fame and the Independence Bowl Hall of Fame.
Since Nardolillo took the conductor's podium of the UK Symphony Orchestra, it has enjoyed great success racking up recording credits, performing on prestigious stages at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall and sharing the stage with such acclaimed international artists as Arlo Guthrie, Lynn Harrell and Gil Shaham. Among its recording credits are: "In Times Like These," recorded live with folk icon Guthrie in March 2006 at the UK Singletary Center for the Arts; the premiere cast recording of Thomas Pasatieri's "The Hotel Casablanca" with UK Opera Theatre; "Music of the Horse," a collection of equestrian-inspired music sponsored by UK School of Music and the Keeneland Foundation; and most recently a critically acclaimed recording of composer George Frederick McKay's "Epoch: An American Dance Symphony" with the UK Women's Choir. The latest recording is the first CD UK Symphony Orchestra produced as part of the orchestra's contract with Naxos, the world's largest classical recording label.
Maker's Mark will produce 18,000 numbered, limited edition bottles that will be available throughout Kentucky on Friday, April 3, opening day of Keeneland's Spring 2009 meet. The bottle honoring Brooks will retail for about $45 to $49 if retailers take their normal markup.
To accommodate the interest of a growing legion of collectors and fans of the Maker's Mark commemorative bottles, a bottle signing will be held at Keeneland Friday, April 10, the day of the Grade-1 Maker's Mark Mile. Bottle owners are invited to come to the race course that morning to have their commemorative bottle signed by featured partners Coach Brooks, Maker's Mark President Bill Samuels and Keeneland President Nick Nicholson.
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