Legendary LSU basketball coach Dale Brown passed away at the age of 90 on Friday. Brown’s family released a statement in the announcement of his death:
“We have lost the most loving and most loved man any of us has ever known. Dale Brown always put others first. He always led with the heart. He was always a great humanitarian before anything else. Dale long ago fell in love with Louisiana. And the people of Louisiana loved him right back. We are forever grateful for that.”
The winningest coach in LSU basketball history, Brown led the Tigers for 25 years, making two Final Four appearances and winning four Southeastern Conference championships. Tiger Rag Editor Glenn Guilbeau said he was an advocate for basketball across the state.
“He drove around Louisiana, particularly rural areas, and hung up purple and gold nets on basketball goals that he would see. That really happened. That’s not just something in a movie,” Guilbeau said.
Brown accumulated 448 wins while at LSU and led the Tigers to ten straight tournament appearances from 1983 to 1994. Guilbeau said the “Master Motivator” was also a master marketer. Brown tuned LSU basketball into a nightly event.
“A few coaches have had success since Dale Brown, but they haven’t been bale to make LSU basketball a consistent happening in the Assembly Center as Dale Brown did,” he said.
Brown was named SEC Coach of the Year four times, including his first season at LSU, and he was the national coach of the year in 1981. He developed stars like Rudy Macklin, Chris Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal.
“He kept his players in his heart for years after they left, and he was always trying to get them to graduate,” Guilbeau said. And some of them did. It took some of them years to do it.”
Of Brown’s 160 of Brown’s players, 104 of them received their college degrees, and those that attended LSU for four years had a graduation rate of 84%.
Off the court, Brown was known for his humanitarian work. His foundation is dedicated to helping young people facing poverty, disabilities and broken homes. Guilbeau said he personally helped several families after Hurricane Katrina.
“I remember hearing stories about him renting a car for a family and just giving them the keys, and sometimes he heard from them again and sometimes he didn’t,” Guilbeau said. “He took people in. He was that kind of guy.”
