The Pete Maravich Assembly Center has always carried a nickname that points back to one legend. But Wednesday night, the building belonged to another.
LSU gathered family, former players, coaches and friends inside the PMAC to honor Dale Brown, the coach who died Oct. 23 at age 90 and spent 25 years turning the Tigers into a real basketball program. His name is already on the court and up in the rafters, and for one final night the arena was filled with the kind of memories that made that tribute feel bigger than any banner.
Ricky Blanton, who played for Brown from 1984-89 and was part of LSU’s 1986 Final Four run, said the setting made perfect sense.
“We’re in this building where all of us, if you were a part of LSU basketball, somewhere you have a visual of coach Brown,” Blanton said. “It’s only fitting. We’re celebrating in the proper place.”
Brown’s record at LSU tells part of the story: 448 wins, two Final Fours, four Southeastern Conference regular-season titles and the program’s only SEC Tournament championship. But the night was built around something bigger than the numbers. One by one, Brown’s former players stepped to the podium and told stories that mixed humor, gratitude and a little heartbreak.
Shaquille O’Neal’s was the one that drew the biggest attention. He revisited the story of Brown visiting a camp at the military base in Germany where Shaq’s father was stationed, beginning a relationship that started when O’Neal was 13 and carried through his rise to the top of the sport.
“He was the first person in my life who believed in me,” O’Neal said. “Dale would write me every Friday. In one of those letters, he offered me a scholarship.”
O’Neal went on to win four NBA titles and an Olympic gold medal, but he said one regret still lingers.
“My only regret,” Shaq said. “He’ll be missed. But he’s inside all of us.”
Rudy Macklin, another of Brown’s biggest stars, gave a different view of the coach’s reach. Brown recruited him out of Louisville, Kentucky, in the mid-1970s with a personal touch that stood out even then. Macklin said Brown sent letters, poems and essays, enough that his father started opening the mail before Rudy got to it.
“I’d get these letters, poems, essays” from Brown, Macklin said. “I thought, ‘This guy is paying a fortune in postage.’ My dad started reading my mail (from LSU) before I got them.”
Brown also made an impression during an in-home visit by sitting down to lunch with the Macklins, something Rudy said helped win over his mother.
“I said, ‘Mom, Marquette is coming,’ ” Macklin said. “She said, ‘I don’t care, I like Dale Brown.’ ”
Macklin went on to star for Brown’s best LSU team, the 1980-81 group that reached the Final Four and won a school-record 31 games.
The night also included a story that showed Brown’s influence stretched far beyond his players. Cary Hughes, now a minister in Cary, Illinois, said that when he was a third grader in Baton Rouge, he had a school assignment to interview someone he wanted to be like. He wrote to Brown, who welcomed him into his PMAC office in March 1993.
“He looked me in the eye and said, ‘Young man, never forget, God doesn’t make any junk. You are a gift and you belong to him,’ ” Hughes said.
Hughes said his parents later sent Brown money to thank him for his time, and Brown returned it with a note.
“He sent it back with a note that said, ‘Please give this to a poor family. Dale.’ ”
The PMAC was dressed in black for the ceremony, with black folding chairs set on the hardwood, but the mood was not built around grief. Brown’s former player and assistant coach Jordy Hultberg said the night was about the impact Brown left behind.
“Daddy Dale’s legacy has nothing do with basketball and box scores,” Hultberg said. “It’s the lives he changed. He was a mentor who always led with his heart.
“Tonight is not about mourning a loss. It’s about celebrating 90 remarkable years of passion, loyalty and love.”
Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas, a longtime friend of Brown’s, also appeared through a video message during the ceremony.
“Jackie Robinson said a life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives,” Costas said.
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