Bermuda's sporting fraternity, and the Somerset community in particular, was yesterday mourning the sudden death of well known former Somerset and Bermuda footballer Lance Brown.

Brown, who turned 36 on March 27, died of a massive heart attack early yesterday morning. Within hours the tragic news had spread throughout the Island.

"I was awakened at 6.15 with the news,'' said former Somerset player and coach Randy Horton. "I was devastated, it was very difficult for me to get moving this morning.'' Horton was in the Trojans team in the mid-1970s during their dominant years when Brown broke through as a promising teenager. Horton later coached him, describing the versatile Brown as a "coach's dream''.

"He was such a fine young man and he will be a tremendous loss. He was a man who was always looking to do better, whether in soccer or school.

"I remember him coming to sit in my office and talk to me about the things he wanted to do. He was always thinking about improving himself.'' Horton last saw Brown on Monday at the Airport when the two arrived back on the Island. "I saw him for the first time in a long time, we had a conversation and he seemed pretty good.'' Unquestionably it was as a tough-tackling midfielder or full back that Brown made his mark on the local soccer scene.

One of the players he moulded his game on was current Somerset coach Larry (Muscles) Hunt who played alongside him in the Trojans midfield for about four years.

"I'm quite upset, he is going to be a great loss to sports in Bermuda,'' said Hunt, who heard the tragic news from neighbour Kenny (Pop) Simmons just before 7 a.m. yesterday.

"He was a small man but had a great heart. Everybody liked him, it was hard not to. He lived life to the fullest.

"I played about four seasons with him and he moulded his game on the same type of game I played -- no-nonsense. I've known him since he was 10 years old.'' Hunt was the coach at Somerset Eagles in 1985 when the club made Brown Bermuda's first $2,500 footballer.

The $2,500 transfer fee was introduced by the Bermuda Football Association to discourage clubs from enticing top players from other clubs with monetary incentives. It applied only to players who had come up through a club's junior ranks.

Brown eventually returned to Somerset's First Division team and stepped down after they beat Dandy Town 2-0 in the 1990 FA Cup final. He joined the Somerset Extros in the Commercial League and also had coaching stints at Somerset Eagles and Warwick.

Brown last played for Bermuda in the Shell Caribbean Cup in 1990, against Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados, as well as a friendly against Iceland two days after the FA Cup final.

"I will always remember Lance as an excellent student of the game, with a great sense of commitment to teamwork in particular,'' said Horton.

"He started out as a midfielder but also played at left back and while he may not have wanted to play there he was content to do it in the best interest of the team.

"He was a coach's player who was always there for the team. He was one player who would lift the team. He had wonderful work ethics and never gave up.'' Lorenzo Symonds, who was captain of the Bermuda team during the time when Brown was playing at international level, also remembers him as the type of person who knew when to have fun and when to be serious.

He recalls one incident in Mexico in 1987 in the second leg of the Olympic qualifier when Brown, in the hotel restaurant, took the microphone and began singing in Spanish to the amusement of his team-mates and other hotel guests.

"He was a fun loving guy but at the same time was very serious. He was the epitome of both,'' said Symonds.

"When it came to football he was very focused. If we had to be tough on the field he was showing the way. He was really tough as a player and very fit, that's what makes this so scary.'' Symonds said Brown's death would be a great miss. "I know I'm going to echo the feelings of everybody, he was such a likeable guy. He's going to be a miss to football.'' Brown was planning to run in next week's May 24 Marathon Derby, joking about going for the record.

He enjoyed a brief stint as a sports journalist with both Bermuda Times and the Bermuda Sun, writing a weekly soccer column for the Sun.

"He was trying to advocate the future positive development of football in Bermuda and he used his column to advance the positive image of football,'' said David Sabir, the Bermuda Football Association administrative assistant and a former Trojans team-mate.

"In a footballing sense if there was a role model for young people Lance was that person. I was always fond of Lance and I had the ultimate respect for his mastery of the game.

"As an individual he was an absolute gentleman. Very few people, if any, will have anything negative to say about Lance.'' Former Sandys Secondary headmaster Mansfield Brock, who taught the young Lance Brown, echoed those sentiments. "I was deeply saddened to learn of his premature death,'' said Brock yesterday.

"One of his classmates called me this afternoon and I was absolutely shocked to hear it. He was a very, very warm, wonderful person of excellent character, a person of whom everybody was proud.'' Brown, a Seventh Day Adventist, leaves a wife Yvette and son Lance Jr. He was a member of Ambitious Associates, a group from Somerset that recognised the achievements of persons in the community.

LANCE BROWN -- after Somerset's 2-0 win over Dandy Town in the 1990 FA Cup final.