THE PASSING OF ONE OF LSU’S GREATEST!

Monday, October 26^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE PASSING OF ONE OF LSU’S GREATEST!

Louisiana lost a major sports icon last week. LSU coach Dale Brown, one of the winningest coaches in basketball history, passed away at 90 years old. He took LSU from the dregs of college basketball as a respected coach who posted numerous winning records.  Coach Brown was Southeast Conference coach of the year or the runner-up on nine different occasions, and was national coach of the year twice. 

 But he was more than a basketball coach.  He was a motivator and regularly spoke out about the importance of changing the social ills that face so many Americans.  He traveled the world, and sought out challenges, even traveling in a small boat the whole length of the Mississippi River. He was a personal friend of Mother Teresa and close to several presidents, including George Bush.   Simply put, Dale Brown was a renaissance man. He was also my close friend.

Dale knew that I was a basketball recruit at the University of North Carolina. I was the first recruit of legendary coach Dean Smith there, and Dale and Dean were close friends for many years. We always joked that we had to be related having the same last name.

Dale came to Louisiana from North Dakota, but immediately adjusted to the special Louisiana way of life. He knew he had an uphill fight trying to solve basketball in a state that is still consumed by football. LSU Athletics Director Joe Dean told Coach Brown: “If you take the job, you will raise the flag, you will sing the national anthem, you’ll keep your own stats and you will sweep the floor. LSU is totally uninterested in basketball.”  

I’ve had front row seats for LSU basketball games for over 50 years. During the time I served as Secretary Of State, I often brought a load of the state’s newspapers to thumb through as I watched the game. Dale made a special trip to see me in my office back in the 1980s. There had been a picture in the local paper of me reading during a basketball game. Coach Brown asked me to please not read during the games as it looked like I was a fan who was uninterested. I  certainly complied with his wishes.

Dale undertook a personal vendetta against the NCAA as to how it regulated basketball. He openly  called the national sports supervisors “Gestapo bastards” for how he believed they governed. His fight against the NCAA continued for many years, and most of the changing regulations he had lobbied for were eventually put in place.

I still have a copy of a 1985 Sports Illustrated magazine that had Dale Brown on its cover. The headline said it all, “Crazy Days at LSU.” When they talked about the coach, the cover story said, “Hello trouble, I’m Dale Brown.” The article went on to quote Dale as saying “From the moment they snipped the umbilical cord, I’ve been in the middle of controversy.”  It was easy to understand why so many people loved this guy.

Dale always made it clear that he wanted to be a winner. He coached LSU for 25 years, and when he retired in 1997, he held 448 wins. Dale made two Final Four appearances, one in Philadelphia and the other in Dallas. I was there on both occasions.  Thirty years has passed and Dale Brown still ranks forth on the all-time list of winningest coaches.

Many outstanding basketball coaches have come and gone since Dale Brown retired. But if you have to look for one coach who strived for victory in sports as well as in life, and spoke out about so many social causes that were important to him right up until the day he passed away, there would be none better and few who could compare with LSU ‘s indomitable Coach Dale Brown. Rest in peace, my friend. There will definitely be a place for you up yonder.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.