LSU basketball coaching icon Dale Brown has died at the age of 90, the school announced Friday. He was just over a week away from what would have been his 91st birthday. Brown guided the Tigers to two Final Four appearances, and his players included Shaquille O'Neal and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
Brown won a school-record 448 games, four SEC championships and 13 NCAA tournament appearances in his 25 seasons with the Tigers from 1972 to 1997. He was a four-time SEC Coach of the Year and was named national coach of the year in 1981. He had been selected earlier this week to receive the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award.
His family said in a statement released by LSU: "We have lost the most loving and most loved man any of us has ever known." The statement added, "Dale Brown always put others first. He always led with the heart." The energy of his teams packed LSU's Pete Maravich Assembly Center so loudly that the arena became known as "Deaf Dome."
Brown's tenure was marred by an NCAA investigation during the 1996-97 season, which concluded that a booster had paid former player Lester Earl about $5,000. Brown retired in 1997, and LSU was placed on probation in 1998. Still, he remained popular in Louisiana, and LSU's home court was named for him in 2022.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing