Happy birthday to Garth Brooks! The singer was born on Feb. 7, 1962, in Tulsa, Okla.
Born Troyal Garth Brooks, the future country superstar is the youngest child of Troyal and Colleen Brooks. His parents deserve much of the credit for his success, since they hosted weekly talent shows for their family, in which they required their six children to participate, fostering their son s early creativity.
But although Brooks showed precocious musical talent, his real love was sports, and he devoted much of his childhood to excelling in athletics, especially football, baseball and track and field. It was his athleticism that led Brooks to Oklahoma State University after high school, on a track scholarship; he graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising, but his aspirations soon changed from business to music.