Doug Brown Doug Brown, a longtime...

Doug Brown

Doug Brown, a longtime Costa Mesa High School football coach

described as a “true gentle giant,” died Saturday of heart disease.

He was 64.

The Norco resident was still teaching at the school, as he had

been for 37 years, and looked forward to retiring at the end of the

school year, said Sherri Brown, his wife of 26 years. His death came

as a surprise and was a bit mysterious, she said.

“There was no warning at all,” she said. “He was better than he

had been for a long time.”

Brown had been teaching science, said Tom Baldwin, a former Costa

Mesa High head coach who also teaches at the school. Brown had also

taught driver’s education and algebra.

“He was a true gentle giant,” Baldwin said of his friend, who

stood 6-foot-5 and weighed more than 300 pounds. “Just a very, very

good teacher. He understood the kids, understood football.”

Baldwin said Brown, a line coach, had a knack for coaching the

offensive linemen.

“A good coach could mold [the linemen] into a really good unit.

One of his strengths was getting them to be one unit.”

Brown didn’t follow his brothers onto the football field at Wilson

High School in Long Beach and didn’t really take to the game until

after playing in a flag football game while in college, Baldwin said.

A coach nearby spotted him and talked him into it.

Brown starred while playing at Fresno State and later attended

training camps with the Rams and Raiders, Baldwin said. He never

played professionally, but the love for football stuck.

At Costa Mesa High, Brown also coached some of his same offensive

linemen on the track team, teaching them the shotput and discus,

Baldwin said.

“He never got all the glory, but he was an outstanding discus and

shotput coach and line coach,” Baldwin said.

What some may not have known was that he didn’t only teach

teenagers. He also taught roller pigeons, Sherri said.

“They look like everyday pigeons, but when they fly, they tumble

in the sky,” she said.

Brown became involved in a roller pigeon club as a teenager and

only stopped teaching them briefly while playing college football,

she said.

“He did it every year for four years through high school,” Sherri

said. “When we got married in 1976, we bought a loft and he’d been

doing it ever since. They’re beautiful to watch.”

Brown is survived by Sherri; two daughters, Jennifer and Kristen;

and two grandchildren, Seth and Juleesa.

A viewing will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. today at New Hope Family

Worship Center in Corona. Services will follow.

Anne I. Tully

Services for 25-year Costa Mesa resident Anne I. Tully will be

held at 11:15 a.m. Friday at Pacific View Memorial Park. Mrs. Tully

died Wednesday of natural causes. She was 87. She is survived by son

W. Jeffrey Tully; brothers Ed and Bill Tully; and sister Dorothy.

* The Daily Pilot welcomes obituaries for residents or former

residents of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. If you want to have an

obituary printed in the Pilot, ask your mortuary to fax us the

information at (949) 646-4170 or call the newsroom at (949) 764-4324.