Statistical measures of quantum chaos were born out of a desire to quantify spectral features of complex systems. Random matrix theory was developed in an attempt to characterize spectra of complex nuclei. The remarkable result is that the statistical properties of many systems with unknown Hamiltonians can be predicted using random matrices of the proper symmetry class. Furthermore, random matrix theory also correctly predicts statistical properties of the eigenvalues of many chaotic systems with known Hamiltonians. This makes it useful as a tool for characterizing spectra which require large numerical efforts to compute.