An important and historic member of the USM community, Richard “Doc” Costello, passed away last Monday at the age of 79 in his Gorham home after battling cancer.
Born in 1928 in Burlington, NJ, he came in 1953 to what was then Gorham State Teachers College as a physical education teacher and assistant coach.
In his 37 years at USM, Costello dutifully wore almost every hat in the athletic department, coaching almost every sport at the school before becoming athletic director in 1955, a job he held until 1990.
Hardly content to give up the hardwood courts for a desk, Costello continued to coach both the men and women’s basketball teams even after becoming athletic director.
He is the only coach in NCAA history to win 200 games with both men’s and women’s teams.
Credited with establishing the first collegiate soccer program in the state, Costello was also a founding member of the Little East Conference.
In recent years, he’s been known to hang around the building that bears his name, the Costello Sports Complex in Gorham, shooting hoops and chatting with Huskies 60 years his junior.
His funeral was held this past Saturday in Gorham at St. Anne’s Catholic Church.