DOUG BROCKMEYER NEWPORT HARBOR

Richard Dunn

Of the lessons learned on the Newport Harbor High athletic fields,

Doug Brockmeyer would list courage, determination and a positive

attitude while competing in football under Coach Bill Pizzica and

track and field under Coach Bob Hailey.

“They really pushed you to succeed and never give up and always do

your best, and those things rub off on you,” said Brockmeyer, a

pediatric neurosurgeon at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake

City, Utah.

“Their coaching and leadership was a large factor in the success

we’d had, and those other guys are all successful in life.”

Brockmeyer, a two-way football starter who was decorated with

postseason accolades as a 6-foot-3, 200-pound offensive guard, grew

up with a core of Harbor gridders that included Don Barker, Wayne

Kasparek, Frank Venclik, Bobby Brown and Paul Helfrich.

“We had all played together since the third grade,” said

Brockmeyer, a first-team All-Sunset League and third-team All-Orange

County selection in the fall of 1977, when Pizzica’s Sailors finished

9-3 and advanced to the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Big

Five Conference (large-school division) playoffs.

It was a time when Newport Harbor played in the powerful Sunset

League with teams like Fountain Valley, Edison, Huntington Beach and

Marina, and, for Brockmeyer, simply making the playoffs with his

childhood teammates was a thrill, let alone winning two postseason

games.

“It seemed the whole community got behind us, and that was a good

feeling,” said Brockmeyer, whose league runner-up Sailors defeated

St. Francis in the first round, 21-15, and West Covina in the

quarterfinals, 14-10, before losing to St. Paul.

Brockmeyer, who also wrestled at Newport Harbor in the winter

season, attended Harvard and played one year of football, but the

coaches there envisioned him beefing up to about 260 pounds and

playing one day as an All-Ivy League offensive lineman. Brockmeyer

had other ideas.

“There was no way I was going to do that,” Brockmeyer said. “I

just didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to change my body too much.

There were too many other things I wanted to do.”

Brockmeyer, who climbed to 215 pounds his freshman year in

Cambridge, Mass., ended his football career and joined the

prestigious Harvard crew team.

“With rowing, you didn’t need to put on any weight,” said

Brockmeyer, who enjoyed a four-year collegiate career that included

competing on a national championship freshmen boat and later on

Harvard’s varsity eight boat.

Brockmeyer, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of

Fame, attended medical school for four years at Case Western Reserve

University in Ohio after graduating from Harvard, then spent six

years of residency and one year of fellowship in pediatric

neurosurgery at Primary Children’s.

“I just stayed on the staff (at Primary Children’s) after I

finished medical school,” Brockmeyer said. “It’s been a lot of hard

work, but it’s been very rewarding. I’m sort of part of the community

now. It’s a good feeling to work at a major children’s hospital. We

serve children from all over: Idaho, Montana, Western Colorado. This

is the mecca for the whole Intramountain West ... it’s a great place

to work.”

Brockmeyer, who has a daughter, Meghan, 10, and a son, Russell, 7,

is as athletic as ever these days.

Brockmeyer, who has competed in adventure races and loves long

mountain runs, is training for a 100-mile charity run in the fall. He

also enjoys mountain climbing, cycling, snow skiing and fly fishing,

and has climbed several of the world’s highest points.

“You could say I’ve become absorbed in the lifestyle, which is

natural when you live here in Salt Lake City,” said Brockmeyer, who

has taken medical-related trips around the world and remained at the

destination a little longer in order to scale the local peaks.