Dave Brooks was the younger brother of Herbie, Herb Brooks, US Olympic hockey player and coach of the 1980 US Olympic hockey champions. Dave Brooks played a few years of minor league hockey, first with the Minneapolis Millers in 1959-60, then two years with the Rochester Mustangs from 1962-64, and later with the Green Bay Bobcats. Brooks finished his active playing career in Austria in 1967-68 with Kitzbühel AC. He later became a real estate developer in the Twin Cities area, known for his renovation work on the historic McColl Building (renamed the Brooks Building) in Lowertown, St. Paul.