Former Louisiana State basketball coach Dale Brown dies at 90

Dale Brown, who led Louisiana State University’s basketball team to two national semifinals and won more games than any other coach in the school’s history, has died at 90. LSU announced his death on October 23, ESPN reported.

Brown coached LSU from 1972 to 1997. In his first season, a team forecast to finish last in the Southeastern Conference instead finished 9–9 in conference play, earning him his first conference coach-of-the-year award.

Two runs to the national semifinals

Across 25 seasons, Brown won 448 games and four Southeastern Conference championships. His teams made 13 appearances in the NCAA tournament, the national college basketball championship. LSU reached its Final Four—the semifinal stage—in 1981 and 1986.

Brown was named national coach of the year in 1981 and won the conference’s coaching honour four times.

His players included Shaquille O’Neal and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Brown coached O’Neal for three seasons beginning in 1989–90, with Abdul-Rauf also on the first of those teams. LSU qualified for the national tournament in all three seasons but did not advance beyond the second round.

ESPN reported that an NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting tactics now permitted concluded during the 1996–97 season that a booster had paid former LSU player Lester Earl about $5,000 while he played for the team. Brown retired in 1997. LSU was placed on probation in 1998. Brown maintained that the NCAA had unfairly singled him out.

Selection for a coaching award

Earlier in the week of his death, Brown had been selected to receive the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award, recognizing his accomplishments and impact on college basketball.