Tim Brown, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

If Tim Brown has learned anything, it’s a sense of understanding

his fellow athlete and competitor -- from head to toe, inside and out.

These days, the former Newport Harbor High and University of Redlands

football star, later known as the “Surf Doctor” early in his chiropractic

career, operates Newport Spine and Sport along Mariner’s Mile on West

Coast Highway, travels the speaking circuit and is no longer one of

Newport Beach’s most eligible bachelors.

The epitome of beachcomber health and fitness, Brown became a world-class

surfer and beach volleyball player, following a collegiate football

career as quarterback of the NAIA powerhouse Bulldogs.

Brown’s life changed when he was studying for the Medical College

Admission Test and competing on the beach as a AAA-rated volleyball

player. As the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour started to

grow in the 1980s, so did its players.

That’s when Brown opted to switch career paths and enter the chiropractic

field, as he became interested in the causes rather than the affects of

sports injuries, and began educating athletes on nutrition, conditioning

and prevention techniques.

Then, realizing his pro beach volleyball playing future didn’t stand much

of a chance against guys like Sinjin Smith and Karch Kiraly, he broke out

his adjusting table and served as an on-site chiropractor for the AVP

Tour.

“That became my forte,” he said, “and I was able to take those physical

(problems) and turn it into a positive, while working on their

imbalances, because as their injuries were healing, we would always be

working on something else.”

Brown, who played competitive volleyball from age 14 to 41, started

bringing his table to pro surfing events and soon became a fixture in the

competitor’s area, while gaining a reputation on the sand as the “Surf

Doctor.” He also worked on members of the Newport Beach Dukes in World

TeamTennis in the early ‘90s.

“Now, my practice is mostly pro and elite athletes, from pro football

players to extreme-sport athletes,” said Brown, who recently invented a

new taping technique, which has led to more speaking engagements,

including next month’s for the American Society of Orthopedic Ankle and

Foot Surgeons.

“It’s more than a clinic,” Brown said of his practice, “it’s kind of a

school for injured athletes. I take the skills I enjoyed as a teacher (at

Troy High for a semester out of college), and try to teach people how to

take better care of themselves. I try to educate them on how to stay out

of our clinic. It’s kind of what I always wanted as an athlete but never

got.”

A 1974 Newport Harbor graduate, Brown was honored in 1998 by the American

Chiropractic Association as its Doctor of the Year.

But it wasn’t always a smooth trail for Brown, who played football and

baseball at Newport Harbor, until he broke his left hand one year in

baseball and moved over to volleyball, a club team at the time where

“they needed anybody with two legs.” Brown played volleyball with a cast

on his left hand, then, once it healed and he could play with both hands,

he found another natural gift.

A two-year starter at cornerback who played on the Sailors’ Sunset League

co-championship football team in the fall of ‘73, Brown wanted to play

quarterback under Coach Don Lent, but instead was a backup to Steve

Bukich.

“That was my first really good lesson in politics and how things work in

the real world, so to speak,” Brown said. “It was discouraging and I

almost quit, but my dad would’ve pulled my surfing privileges. He

encouraged me to stay with it.

“It was a poignant time in my life and how the world can be. I really

wanted to get the (heck) out of there, but my dad encouraged me to learn

some good life’s lessons ... and it turned into a positive, because I was

able to continue my football career at Redlands.”

In four years, the Bulldogs never lost a conference game with Brown as

their quarterback. In his junior year, Redlands reached the 1976 NAIA

national championship game.

“We had a plethora of really good athletes who had no business being at a

small college,” said Brown, who added that he learned the most from his

father, Bill, and former Redlands football coach Frank Seraeo.

Bill Brown is a longtime Newport Harbor assistant football coach, “who

has touched more lives than I could ever imagine in my life as a doctor.”

Before deciding to enter medical school, today’s honoree in the Daily

Pilot Sports Hall of Fame played volleyball at Orange Coast College and

competed on Coach Laird Hayes’ national championship surfing team in

1980.

Brown, who “surfs daily” near 56th Street in Newport Beach, married

former Sailors volleyball standout Rebecca Sherwood in October and the

couple lives in Laguna Beach.

Sherwood, who also played at UC Berkeley, was a member of the Tars’ 1987

CIF Southern Section 5-A championship team.