Tom Martinez, the longtime personal coach to quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, has died at age 67.

His wife, Olivia, said to the San Mateo Daily Journal that he died on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack while receiving kidney dialysis treatment. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that he died in Redwood City.

Tom Martinez worked with Tom Brady when he was a teenager growing up in San Mateo, where Martinez was a coach at College of San Mateo. Their friendship continued during Brady’s NFL career.

Martinez told the San Francisco Chronicle before the Patriots’ Super Bowl matchup this year against the New York Giants that he always enjoyed working with Brady and watching him play.

Brady was just as equally complimentary, telling reporters before the Super Bowl that Martinez was the on who taught him how to throw a football, and he would be “forever indebted” to him.

“He’s been a great friend of mine for a very long time,” Brady said, adding that Martinez had been seeking a kidney for a transplant for some time.

Olivia Martinez told the Daily Journal in an email that Martinez “leaves behind three children, their spouses, six beautiful grandchildren and hundreds of young athletes in the Bay Area, also around the country.”

Doctors told Martinez last spring that he had a few months or less to live due to a combination of kidney and heart problems, reported the Daily Journal. His prognosis was, at least temporarily, debunked when medical specialists discovered that it was his pacemaker that was ultimately killing him. The pacemaker was turned off in June and Martinez had been fighting to gain strength while awaiting a kidney transplant.

Martinez was hired at College of San Mateo not only to coach football and to teach physical education, but added softball and women’s basketball to his coaching load.

His teams won 32 championships. He had 400 wins in football during his career, a state record 565 wins in basketball along with 800 wins in softball over his 32 years, the Daily Journal reported.

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