PROVO — The U.S. flag flew at half-staff on Friday at Brigham Young University to honor the memories of communications professor Rich Long and Matt Roush, a former Cougar football player working as a physician with the university's athletic teams.

Long, who was 60, died Tuesday night after going into a coma on Sunday morning. Roush died last Saturday of a heart attack suffered while he was in Cancun, Mexico, with his wife and the BYU gymnastics team.

Long played baseball while he was a student at BYU in the 1960s and returned to the university in 1999 to teach public relations and mass communications and public policy. He also served as an assistant chairman in the communications department.

One of his ecclesiastical leaders, President Rand Packer of the BYU 4th Stake, told the Daily Universe student newspaper that Long researched the names of 40,000 people in his family tree so work could be done for them in temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Long, a pitcher, joined the church after accepting a scholarship to play baseball at BYU.

A viewing is scheduled Sunday from 6-8 p.m. at the Walker Sanderson funeral home, 646 E. 800 North in Orem. The funeral will be Monday at 11 a.m. at the Provo Edgemont Stake Center, 303 W. 3700 North in Provo.

The family has asked for donations to the Rich Long Student Scholarship Fund in the BYU Communications Department.

Roush, 41, was raised in Ogden and was an All-State defensive end at Bonneville High School in the early 1980s. He also was the State Sterling Scholar in science.

He attended medical school at the University of Utah and recently returned to Utah after working in a family and sports medicine clinic in Muncie, Ind., to take over the sports medicine fellowship at Utah Valley Sports Medicine and work as a team doctor with BYU and UVSC sports.

Roush is survived by his wife and six children. Funeral services will be held today at 11 am. at the Provo Edgemont Stake Center, 303 W. 3700 North in Provo.

Donations to fund his children's educations and potential LDS church missions can be made to the "Roush Children's Fund" at any Wells Fargo location.

The Cougar Club also has established the Matthew B. Roush Memorial Athletic Scholarship for student athletes going into sports medicine. Donations may be made at www.cougarclub.com.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com