Dale Brown, the LSU basketball coach credited with discovering a 13-year-old Shaquille O’Neal, has passed away one week shy of his 91st birthday.Days earlier, Brown was named the 2027 recipient of the John R Wooden Legends of Coaching award.’We have lost the most loving and most loved man any of us has ever known,’ Brown’s family said in a statement. ‘Dale Brown always put others first. He always led with the heart. He was always a great humanitarian before anything else. Dale long ago fell in love with Louisiana. And the people of Louisiana loved him right back. We are forever grateful for that.’Brown was named AP Coach of the Year in 1981, was a four-time SEC Coach of the Year and has the most wins of a coach in program history. The panache with which his teams played and the rate at which they won packed LSU’s dome-shaped Pete Maravich Assembly Center with crowds so wild that the stadium took on the nickname, ‘Deaf Dome.’The highlights of his 25 years as LSU’s coach included two trips to the NCAA Final Four with his 1981 and 1986 teams.He coached O’Neal for three seasons, from the 1989-90 campaign until the charismatic, 7ft 1in superstar entered the 1992 NBA draft and was selected first overall by Orlando. LSU earned bids to the NCAA Tournament during all three of O’Neal’s seasons, the first with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, then known as Chris Jackson, also an All-American, but did not advance past the second round. LSU’s head basketball coach Dale Brown yells to his team during the 1986 Final Four Shaquille O’Neal was admittedly a bad player when he met Dale Brown (right) in the mid-80s Dale Brown poses with the Louisiana State University Basketball Team in Baton RougeO’Neal recently described his first encounter with Brown in a tribute video for his former coach.Growing up at the US Army base in Wildflecken, West Germany, where his stepfather was stationed, a 13-year-old O’Neal approached Brown at a local gym, where the coach was holding a clinic. O’Neal was 6ft 6in at the time, so Brown figured he was a soldier or someone already in college.’After I told him I was only 13, the way he hugged and grabbed me, it was like he found the biggest piece of gold nugget in a mountain you could find,’ O’Neal said.Brown sent O’Neal some tips on strengthening his lower body, and while the budding basketball star was still struggling in his development, the coach still saw enough promise to offer a scholarship.’I wasn’t very good in basketball at the time,’ O’Neal said. ‘After I did all the workouts, I still didn’t make the team. And I sent coach Brown a tearful letter. Then coach Brown responded by sending me a scholarship to LSU. ‘You come and sit next to me. You can be whatever you want to be. I just want you to go to college.”I decided to follow that man and go to LSU,’ O’Neal added. ‘And he made me one of the best basketball players ever.’The final years of Brown’s career were marred by an NCAA investigation over alleged recruiting tactics that now are permitted.During the 1996-97 season, the NCAA concluded that a booster had paid one of Brown’s former players, Lester Earl, about $5,000 while he played for the Tigers.Brown retired in 1997 and LSU was placed on probation in 1998.Still, Brown remained popular in Louisiana, where his enthusiastic, gregarious and expressive manner had long captivated fans. Many LSU fans also appeared to subscribe to a storyline – espoused in no small part by Brown – that he was unfairly singled out and persecuted by the NCAA.Brown later was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and LSU’s home basketball court was named for him in 2022 (and also subsequently for late women’s coach Sue Gunter in 2024).When Brown’s name was unveiled on the court during a halftime ceremony, Brown credited his former players and assistant coaches, many of whom were in attendance that night.’The best potential of me is we,’ Brown said. ‘This is an example.’ Brown coaches LSU against the Georgia Bulldogs during a 1997 game in Memphis The late former Temple coach John Chaney called Brown ‘one of the true statesmen of college basketball,’ according to a profile of Brown on LSU’s website.That same profile also quoted Hall of Fame UCLA coach John Wooden saying he will ‘always remember Dale for his enthusiasm.’When he was hired by LSU in 1972, few Tigers fans had previously heard of him. His name recognition and popularity began surging after LSU knocked off then-third-ranked Memphis State in the home opener of Brown’s first season.Brown went on to coach an LSU squad forecast to finish last in the SEC to a 9-9 league record, resulting in his first SEC Coach of the Year honor.Brown went on to post a career 448-301 record at LSU. Following his retirement, Brown became a motivational speaker, a basketball analyst for television broadcasts and started the charitable Dale Brown Foundation, which aims to promote educational opportunities for students who have physical disabilities or come from families who’ve struggled financially.