Born April 22, 1930, Thomas Brock played football, basketball and baseball at DeKalb County High School in Fort Payne. He was captain of the football team and co-captain of the basketball team and made All-County in football and baseball. Brock was also selected to play on the East-West All-Star baseball teams at the local, regional and state levels. After high school, Brock signed a baseball scholarship with Jacksonville State University and led the team in hits all three years he played. As a sophomore, he hit .542, which is still the highest single-season hitting average in JSU history. He is also among the leaders in career averages at JSU with .457. He spent summers playing for the Fort Payne DeSotos and other area semi-professional teams. Brock became Ider’s head football coach and assistant basketball coach after finishing college. He served as principal of a junior high school for a year before leaving the education field. The Collinsville native continued playing basketball semi-professionally for a number of years. He was a member of a championship softball team in the Chattanooga area.
