October 24, 2026
FINE IDEAS
BY JON FINE
Producer, Denham Springs (LA) HS Broadcasts
Owner, ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides store on eBay
Former Louisiana radio sports-talk host
Coach Brown,
Thank you for being you. For the impact you made on society and how gracious you were to me, both personally and professionally.
The memories come flooding in. Here is a late-night stream of consciousness on the eve of your passing:
As a college student in Philadelphia, finding out about your program when you took LSU to the Final Four in 1981, playing at the Spectrum in Philly, falling to Indiana. Looking back, how ironic it would be that I would venture down south to Louisiana to pursue a sportscasting career a year and a half later.
Interviewing you numerous times on my Lake Charles sports call-in show.
When I would interview someone, I would always send them a letter thanking them. Of the hundreds of sports figures I did interview, I can remember only 3 who would send me a reply to my follow-up letters—not that this was necessary or expected. They were Grambling's Football coach Eddie Robinson, Tulane's Football coach Mack Brown and Dale Brown. Like clockwork, Coach Rob, Mack and you—would send me a nice note in response. This was such a cool thing for a young broadcaster just getting started.
As I faced very difficult times, both professionally and personally as a 20-something in Lake Charles, I would cite your Failure Quotient. This went something like the successful person is not one who is able to handle success well, but by how they are able to battle through and overcome failure. This Failure Quotient helped keep me going through much personal turbulence.
The 1986 Final Four run was magical, to be upended by Bobby Knight and Indiana once again.
I remember seeing the movie Hoosiers one Friday night in March 1987 and being reminded of you. Heck, Gene Hackman's character was Norman Dale! And, I thought he bore a striking resemblance to you. The next day, Fess Irvin missed the front end of a one-and-one and IU defeated your team, yet again, in the Elite 8!
A few months later, I was one of the people chosen to roast you at a Dale Brown Roast. I presented you a red and white box, since I said you liked packages (Stanley Roberts and Jim Childers!). My gift to you was a 1986-87 Indiana Basketball Media Guide, with Steve Alford on the cover. I remember you remarked that you would have rather had a book with Genghis Khan on the cover!
I remember coming to your office in the spring of 1990, just before I moved to Baton Rouge to record an interview with you. Off the air, you shared with me that Ed O'Bannon, perhaps the top high school player in the country, that LSU heavily recruited, was going to UNLV. During the interview, you predicted that LSU, with Shaq, Stanley and CJ, was going to win not one, but 2 national championships! This was the type of remark that many held against you. I thought at the time that it was a terrific thing to say!
Crazy Days At LSU—the Sports Illustrated edition title with you on the cover
Your legendary battles with the NCAA as you were just about the only coach, certainly the highest profile coach, who spoke out against the hypocrisy of Walter Byers and the NCAA.
I always thought that your Freak Defense was basically a fancy name for a combination defense.
You used your platform to speak out for the underdog, the underprivileged, having risen from the depths of an impoverished upbringing in Minot North Dakota as you were raised by a single mom, your dad not being part of your life. And, you never forgot where you came from. "I'll show you" was one of your mottos, I believe.
I remember coming on the air in Baton Rouge in the summer of 1990 as a sports-talk host on WIBR Radio, singing your praises as a great coach. This was not a very popular point of view with the masses. Perhaps it was the third least popular thing I ever expressed on Baton Rouge airwaves, surpassed only by my assertion that Pete Maravich was overrated and that USC shared the 2003 college football national championship.
It was so nice to reconnect with you the last 10 or so years of your life. We talked a number of times and you would include me on your emails on thoughts both basketball and non-basketball related. I would always send you a note to thank you for the email, perhaps expressing a thought or 2. And, just like 3 decades + ago, you would always send me a note back. You called me your friend and that meant/means the world to me.
You should be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. It is shameful that you are not. I hope that the powers that be at LSU make a push for this, although it is sad that if you are enshrined at Springfield, you would not be around to see it. I can only imagine what your induction speech would have been like!
You did it with flair, you did it with style, you did it with charisma, you did it with panache, you did it with aplomb. You were often derided for such. I found these to be endearing qualities.
Not sure how to quantify it, if there is any analytics for such, but I believe that the world is a better place now as a result of your inhabiting it just shy of 91 years.
You died a mere 8 days before your 91st birthday, which would have been on October 31. And yes, I think it was apropos that you were born on Halloween! Not sure what to make of the fact that Nick Saban was born that very same day.
You were One of One. When you were born, they did not break the mold, it was shattered!
May you rest in peace. God Bless!
Thank you, Coach Brown.
Jon