Overview
- LSU announced on Friday that Brown died at age 90 and his family described him as a loving humanitarian who put others first.
- Brown coached LSU from 1972 to 1997, winning a school-record 448 games and guiding the Tigers to two Final Four appearances and multiple SEC titles.
- He first met and mentored a teenage Shaquille O’Neal at a U.S. Army base in West Germany and later recruited him to LSU, where O’Neal became a dominant college player and eventual NBA star.
- Late in Brown’s tenure an NCAA probe found a booster had paid player Lester Earl about $5,000, a finding that preceded Brown’s 1997 retirement and LSU’s 1998 probation.
- In the years after he coached Brown remained in the public eye through broadcasting, the Dale Brown Foundation, a 2014 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame induction, an LSU court naming in 2022, and a recent announcement that he was to receive the 2027 John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award.