LSU basketball to name Pete Maravich Assembly Center court after former coach Dale Brown

BATON ROUGE — The man who made LSU basketball games an event in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the first time — Dale Brown — will have his name permanently etched on the court.

The LSU Board of Supervisors on Friday approved by 12-3 vote to name the Assembly Center court in honor of the coach who took the Tigers to the Final Four in 1981 and 1986 after inheriting a dying program in 1972.

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The '86 team was the worst seed at No. 11 to make the Final Four in history at the time.

He nearly went for a third time in 1987 with a stunning upset of No. 3 Indiana and coach Bobby Knight, but fell, 77-76, only after two missed free throws in the closing seconds. Brown was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

Brown's star players, high scoring motion offense and his scheduling of highly ranked, brand name teams in non-conference from the late 1970s through the 1990s regularly filled the Assembly Center, which opened in January 1972 just months before his arrival.

He recruited such stars as Rudy Macklin from Louisville, John Williams from Los Angeles, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson) from Gulfport, Mississippi, and Shaquille O'Neal from San Antonio, among others.

"I didn't campaign for this, but I appreciate what people have done to make this happen," Brown told the USA TODAY Network Friday. "Awards and honors were never a goal of mine. My only goals were to build LSU into a national power and to help young men improve their lives. Now, though, with the tremendous honor LSU’s Board of Supervisors has just given me - the naming of Dale Brown Court - I get to use one of the most powerful phrases in the English language: Thank You!"

Brown, 85, retired after the 1997 season following SEC championships in 1979, '81, '85 and '91 with an SEC Tournament title in 1980. There was also NCAA probation after Brown left for violations by his program regarding the recruitment of Lester Earl.

A native of Minot, North Dakota, Brown never left Baton Rouge after moving in 1972 from an assistant coaching job at Washington State.

"Thank you to the people of Louisiana who have always allowed me to enjoy such a special relationship with both LSU and this entire state that I have loved for so long," he said. "Thank you to the parents who entrusted me with their sons. Thank you to my players and assistant coaches and support staff. Thank you to LSU fans everywhere. You have given me the honor of a lifetime."

Brown was a pioneer proponent of pay for college athletes four decades before income for athletes through Name, Image and Likeness legislation became a reality over the summer.

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"He basically invented the NIL movement," said FOX sports announcer Tim Brando, a Shreveport native who got to know Brown as a sports anchor at WAFB Channel 9 in Baton Rouge in the 1980s before going to ESPN. "He was a humanitarian off the court and a great coach on it."

Brando sees himself as a son of Brown, who was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

"I'm thrilled with this honor for him. He is like a father to me," said Brando, who delivered an impassioned plea for the court to be named for Brown at the Aug. 6 Board of Supervisors meeting. But the vote was delayed until Friday.

"I so wanted this to happen while he was still with us and in great shape and lucid as he is now. I'm so happy for him," Brando said.

One of Brown's greatest accomplishments at LSU was consistently being competitive with SEC power Kentucky for most of his career. When Brown arrived in 1972, LSU was 2-35 against the Wildcats. By 1987, Brown was 13-21 against Kentucky with a 6-2 run against the titans of the SEC from 1978-81.

The Tigers upset No. 3 Kentucky, 59-57, in the NCAA Southeast Regional final in Atlanta in 1986 to reach the Final Four.

LSU went to the NCAA Tournament 10 straight times under Brown from 1984-93. The Tigers have reached the NCAA Tournament twice in a row only once since - in 2019 and '21 with the 2020 NCAA Tournament canceled due to COVID-19.

"His accomplishments on the court have long been worthy of this," Brando said. "Dale Brown remains the face and character most identified with LSU basketball."

LSU board member Collis Temple Jr., who played on Brown's first team in the 1972-73 season after becoming LSU's first Black basketball player under previous coach Press Maravich, silenced the board with his comments Friday.

"We've had 10 years to talk about this, and the reason we've talked about it for 10 years was because some folk didn't want to do it," Temple said. "He changed the trajectory of the state of Louisiana and the mindset of all the stereotypical negativity."

The board voted 12-3 against naming the court after Brown and former LSU women's basketball coach Sue Gunter, who is in the Naismith Hall of Fame. There is a statue of Gunter, who died in 2005, in the Assembly Center concourse.

"Thank you," Brown said again. "You have honored me by allowing me to be part of your lives for so many years now."