Dale Brown, the coach who helped shape Shaquille O’Neal’s college years at LSU, died Friday at age 90, just days after he was honored with the 2027 John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award from the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
O’Neal had sent Brown a special video message on Tuesday, Oct. 20, acknowledging the longtime Tigers coach after the award announcement. Brown’s death came only three days later.
Brown’s run in Baton Rouge stretched across 25 seasons, from 1972 to 1997, and produced 448 wins. He left LSU as the program’s longest-tenured and winningest men’s basketball coach, a standard that still stands. His coaching resume also included induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
Born Oct. 31, 1935, in Minot, North Dakota, Brown graduated from Minot State in 1957, where he played football, basketball and track. Before landing at LSU, he coached high school basketball in North Dakota and California and joined Utah State as an assistant in 1966.
When Brown took over ahead of the 1972-73 season, LSU basketball was still fighting for attention in a football-crazed state. He changed that quickly.
The Tigers won their first Southeastern Conference regular-season title under Brown in 1979, then added more in 1981, 1985 and 1991. LSU also captured the SEC Tournament title in 1980.
His teams reached the NCAA Tournament 13 times, including 10 straight trips from 1984 through 1993. LSU got to the Final Four in 1981 for the first time since 1953, then returned in 1986 after upsetting top-ranked Kentucky in the regional final. Brown was also named SEC Coach of the Year four times and won the Associated Press national coaching honor in 1981.
Brown recruited a string of major LSU players, among them Rudy Macklin, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, also known as Chris Jackson, and O’Neal.
Brown retired after the 1996-97 season. He is survived by his wife, Vonnie, whom he married in 1959, and their daughter, Robyn.
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