University of Houston's head football coach Art Briles is the pride of his alma mater. Born December 3, 1955 Art was all-state quarterback at Rule High School which was coached by his father. He then went on to play wide receiver for 3 years at Houston as well as play at the 1977 Cotton Bowl.

He is married to his wife Jan and proudly boasts of his three kids who followed in their fathers' footsteps by attending his alma mater. Jancy is a graduate of UH and now works in the Dallas Cowboys' public relations office. Kendal, also a graduate of UH played as quarterback and wide receiver for the Cougar's in 2004-2005. Staley is a senior this year with UH.

Art began his coaching career in 1979 as an assistant for Sundown High School. In 1980 he would leave Sundown to become an assistant coach at Sweetwater High School where he would stay until 1983. Moving forward he would join Hamlin High School as head coach for the 1984-1985 season. In 1986 he moved on to Georgetown High School once again as head coach. His longest stretch as a high school head coach would be at Stephenville High School where he stayed from 1988 to 1999. In 2000 he would advance his career by joining Texas Tech as an assistant running back coach. In 2003 he would find his home back in Houston with the Cougars as head coach. He's been breaking records ever since and bringing his team back into the game by leaps and bounds.

He has enormous passion for the game and it has shown in his abilities as a coach to bring his teams to the leader of the packs.

Among many of the awards that Briles has received for his efforts, in 2006 he was named Coach of the year by the Coaches Conference USA and Sportexe 2006 Division I-A National Football Coach of the year. He has also been inducted into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame.

While coaching Houston, he has managed to break many records bringing them back to the victory circle. In his first season he brought his team to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl being only the second coach for UH to be able to claim such a feat. Though his team did not win the game, they made sure to give Hawaii a run for their money with a triple overtime and ending score of 54-48.

While Art Briles is far from being ready to retire, he certainly has found his home back at Houston with no end in sight for all the record breaking or great talent he is producing. While he certainly has the experience, one would have to wonder if his passion and love for UH is more the reason why this union has become pure magic for a team that has seen more distant days of struggle.

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