Dale Brown

Highlights

He is the winningest coach in LSU men's basketball history; He led the LSU Tigers to Final Four appearances in 1981 and 1986

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Dale Brown is the winningest coach in LSU men's basketball history and led the Tigers to Final Four appearances in 1981 and 1986. He coached the team for one quarter of a century. He is also remembered as one of the most vocal critics of the NCAA during the 1980s and 1990s.

Brown is originally from Minot, North Dakota, where he was a star football, basketball and track performer. He was the state scoring leader in basketball and set a school record in the 440-yard dash at St. Leo's High School (now called Bishop Ryan High School). Brown then went to college at nearby Minot State University. He was a star athlete there as well. He earned 12 letters in basketball, football and track. He is the school's only athlete to achieve that goal.

Brown started his coaching career coaching high school basketball. Eventually, he got a college job as an assistant coach at Utah State University. In 1971, he left the school with hard feelings after five years. He had expected to receive the head coach job after Ladell Andersen left the university, but the job went to T.L. Plain. After leaving Utah State, Brown then accepted another assistant coach position at Washington State University. He would be there for the 1971-1972 season.

He came to LSU in 1972, and replaced Press Maravich as head coach. The LSU program had received great notoriety during the Press Maravich era because of his son, Pete Maravich. In spite of the publicity, however, LSU was still a losing program, making no NCAA basketball tournaments and one NIT appearance during the Maravich Era. Brown took over a team that finished 10-16 in the 1971-1972 season and a program which had not been to the NCAA tournament since 1954. He led them to be recognized as one of the elite basketball teams in the SEC and a nationally known program.

After his departure from LSU, Dale Brown kept a low profile in his involvement with LSU athletics. He stayed in Baton Rouge after his retirement and created his own business, Dale Brown Enterprises. Brown has also worked as a college basketball analyst and motivational speaker.

In 2001, reports surfaced that Brown was considering running for the United States House of Representatives in North Dakota. Republicans in the state tried to persuade Brown to challenge incumbent Democrat Earl Pomeroy, but he decided against it. Two years later his name surfaced again, this time as a potential candidate to run for the United States Senate in 2004 against incumbent Democrat Byron Dorgan. Once again, however, Brown decided not to run.

Dale Brown suffered a stroke on April 24, 2003. He says that doctors told him they were not sure if he would survive the related operation. But Brown made a strong recovery and regained his speech and strength. He returned home a few weeks after his stroke, and was back at work in Baton Rouge a month later.

2006 was a comeback year of sorts for Brown. In February, former LSU athletic director and basketball player Joe Dean, who announced many LSU games as a television color commentator during Brown's tenure as a coach and later selected Brown's successor, John Brady, submitted a letter to a Baton Rouge newspaper saying that he believes that the basketball floor at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center should be named after Brown. In addition, LSU honored Dale Brown and his 1986 team in February on the 20th anniversary of their improbable run to the Final Four. One month later, the LSU men's basketball team (coached by Brady) made its own Cinderella run to the Final Four. Brady's team was a 4 seed, but had to defeat the top two regional seeds (Duke and Texas) to get there. It was the men's team's first Final Four appearance since 1986, and it brought more renewed interest in LSU basketball and the Dale Brown era. Many fans consider Dale Brown to be one of the best human beings and better coaches they have seen in the college ranks.

In the summer of 2007, Brown appeared on Shaq's Big Challenge offering words of encouragement to Shaquille O'Neal about helping overweight children. Brown has also written a book about his LSU experiences, called "Dale Brown's Memoirs From LSU Basketball."

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