Bill O'Brien: Career profile and things you might not know about him
A quick look at new Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien's career accomplishments, as both a player and coach, and some fast facts on the O'Brien family.
Name: William J. O’Brien
Nicknames: Billy, O’Bie
Age: 42, born Oct. 23, 1969 at St. Margarets Hospital in Dorchester, Mass.
Hometown: Andover, Mass.
Family: Wife Colleen; sons Jack, 9 and Michael, 6; father John; mother Anne; brothers John Jr. “Jack”, 51; and Tom, 48.
Playing career: St. John’s Preparatory (1984-88), Brown University (1989-1992; bachelor of arts, double major in political science and organizational behavior management)
Coaching career: St John’s Prep (1989 – freshman lineman coach); Brown University (1993– tight ends; 1994 – linebackers); Georgia Tech (1995-97 – graduate assistant; 1998-00 – running backs/recruiting coordinator; 2001-offensive coordinator; 2002-asst. head coach/offensive coordinator); Maryland (2003-04 – running backs); Duke (2005-06 – offensive coordinator); New England Patriots (2007-coaching assistant; 2008-wide receivers; 2009-10-quarterbacks; 2011-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks).
Dirty Dozen of Things you didn’t know about the O’Brien family
•Bill’s ambition – as stated in the St. John’s Prep yearbook “The Spire” in 1988, was “to dunk a basketball by the age of thirty” It never happened.
•Quote he provided under his senior picture in that same edition of the yearbook: “You only live once and if you live right, once is enough.”
•On summer break in college, he worked for the Highway Department in Cape Cod, Mass., where he fixed roads, and potholes, and raked the beaches.
•He is halfway through a master’s in public policy that dates back to his days as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech.
•He met his wife, Colleen, through current Syracuse University football coach Doug Marrone. Colleen is a graduate of Boston College, and she has worked in the sports information department at B.C. and Northeastern.
•The couple’s older son, Jack, was born with lissencephaly, a rare genetic brain malformation.
•The sports tradition in the O’Brien family runs deep: Bill’s paternal grandfather was a newspaperman who played football for a team called “Pere Marquette” in South Boston, and he once faced three of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in a game against the Hartford Blues.
•Three generations of Brown football: Bill’s father, John, his brother, Tom, and his nephew, Matthew, are all Brown lettermen.
•Tom and his wife, Patricia, adopted four children from three different south American countries, and Tom sits on the board of directors of “Mil Milagros” (thousand miracles) Inc. The organization partners with schools and families in Guatemala to help improve the lives of impoverished children.
•Bill’s eldest brother, John Jr., was a Massachusetts State Senator from 1993-98.
•John Sr. served three terms as a selectman, the equivalent of a city council member, in Scituate, Mass.
