Cunningham retiring after 32 years as University’s football coach

Orange County is losing another longtime high school football coach.

After leading University for 32 years, Costa Mesa resident Mark Cunningham is retiring, said Shar Pourdanesh, who played for Cunningham in the 1980s and went on to play in the NFL, via text on Sunday night.

Pourdanesh said he was supposed to be at Sunday’s University football banquet, where Cunningham, 67, was going to announce his retirement, but his flight was delayed in Miami, Fla.

Cunningham finished with a 149-183-8 overall record with the Trojans. In his final year, Cunningham’s team went 6-4 overall and 2-3 in the Pacific Coast League, a fourth-place finish.

“My first year of playing football was Mark’s first year coaching [at] University [in 1986], so I have an extremely close connection to him,” said Pourdanesh, who was born in Tehran, Iran, and whose family in 1983 moved to the U.S., where he learned how to play football under Cunningham. “I’m very proud to have been part of his program [as a player and assistant coach]. It’s … also very special that my boys [Alex and Julian] were able to play for him. Mark is the sort of man who you will never forget. I am certain that my boys will look back at their time with Mark and relish the experience.

“He is the … definition of class. The respect [that] he has earned throughout Southern California is fully justified. His teachings go beyond football. He teaches young men how to navigate through life.”

Cunningham battled throat cancer before the 2010 season. He was able to return and coach in time for University’s league opener that year.

Cunningham and Jeff Brinkley, who retired Tuesday after 32 years in charge of Newport Harbor, were the longest tenured head football coaches in the county.

david.carrillo@latimes.com

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