Lou Brock was born in El Dorado, Arkansas and played college baseball at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He signed with the Cubs as an amateur free agent and broke into the Majors in 1961.

Brock was blessed with great speed and baserunning instincts, but his numbers with the Cubs failed to impress anyone. In 1964 after failing to live up to his potential, the Cubs gave up on Brock and made him part of a trade the Cubs made with the Cardinals for pitcher Ernie Broglio.

After Brock was traded to the Cardinals, his career turned around significantly, as he batted .348 for the Cardinals that season and lead them to winning the 1964 World Series. As Brock's career continued to thrive with the Cardinals, Broglio's crashed, and he was out of baseball by 1966. Brock on the other hand, had many more successful seasons playing with the Cardinals until his last season of play in 1979. To this day, the Brock for Broglio trade is considered by Cubs fans to be the worst in franchise history.

Throughout his career, Brock helped the Cardinals win two World Series in 1964 and 1967, defeating the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, respectively, and led them to another, a Series loss to the Detroit Tigers in 1968.

In 1967, Brock became the first player to steal 50 bases and hit 20 home runs in the same season.

That same year, Brock hit 5 home runs in the first 4 games of the season, becoming the first to do so. It would later be matched by Barry Bonds in 2002 and Chris Shelton in 2006. The odd part is that Brock is not considered a power hitter.

His best batting average was in 1964, when he bated .315, one of eight years he batted over .300, he was a 6-time National League All-Star, he led the league in runs 2 times (1967 and 1971),led the league in doubles (46 in 1968), and led the league in triples (14 in 1968).

Brock held the record for career stolen bases (938) until it was broken by Rickey Henderson. In 1974 he stole a major-league record 118 bases (Maury Wills held the former record of 104 in 1962; Brock's single-season record was also later broken by Henderson). Brock led the National League in stolen bases eight times between 1966 and 1974 (former teammate Bobby Tolan led the league in steals in 1970).

Overall, Brock batted .293 in 19 seasons, amassing a total of 3023 hits.

Brock was named the 1967 National League Babe Ruth award, the 1974 Major League Player of the Year, the 1975 Roberto Clemente Award, the 1977 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, and the 1979 Hutch Award.

Brock was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985. His number 20 was retired by the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1999, he ranked Number 58 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

After retiring from baseball, Brock prospered as a businessman, especially as a florist in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Lou Brock is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.

Brock is the father of former USC Trojan and NFL player Lou Brock Jr.

Even though his stolen base record has been surpassed, the National League honors each stolen base leader with the Lou Brock award.

    * Brock hit one of the only three home runs ever hit over the center field wall at the Polo Grounds. His blast came on June 17, 1962, and would be followed by Hank Aaron's shot the very next day. Joe Adcock was the first to hit a ball over that wall, in 1953.

    * Brock also was the first player ever to bat in a regular season game in Canada. He led off the April 14, 1969 game against the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park by lining out to second.