Patrick Murphy "Patches" O'Brien (November 1, 1906 - August 13, 1984) was an American college football coach, best known for coaching at the University of Huron from 1944 to 1970, a period during which he won seven national championships with the school and transformed the university from a rural university into one of the most significant programs in the sport. Prior to his tenure at Huron, O'Brien was the head coach at Yale, where he won the 1942 national championship but was fired in December 1943 after his fourth season for compiling an 0-4 record against Harvard. O'Brien also was the head coach at the New York A&M from 1934-1939, a school which would later become Western New York University.