Two days after being named the recipient of John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award, Dale Brown has died.
Tiger Rag reported the news, and LouisianaSports.net has confirmed it.
Brown was to turn 91 on Halloween.
In 1972, Brown came to Baton Rouge and embarked on a 25-year run unmatched in program history. He led LSU to four SEC titles, the only SEC Tournament championship in program history and, most importantly, two Final Fours, 1981 and 1986.
For a decade, the Tigers were among the nation’s elite.
Four times, Brown was named SEC Coach of the Year. He recruited and coached three players – Rudy Macklin, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Shaquille O’Neal– whose jerseys have been retired by the school.
The floor in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center bears Brown’s name.
“We have lost the most loving and most loved man any of us have ever known,” the family released in a statement. “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 loved him right back. We are forever grateful for that.”
He was born in Minot, N.D., in 1935. After a decade in the high school ranks, Brown took an assistant job at Utah State where he worked for five years, then to Washington State. He’d move to Baton Rouge a year later and called it home until he died 54 years later.
Brown frequented LSU home basketball games, always in his trademark brown sweater, shaking hands from the moment he walked through the door.
LSU has said goodbye to legends Skip Bertman, Jerry Stovall and Bob Petit in 2026. Brown joins that legendary group.
