Coaching legend returns for Homecoming
There are four hurdles Dale Brown everyone will encounter in life. No matter who the person or the path they’re taking, there will be adversity, but there are ways to get over these hurdles.
These hurdles and the ways to jump over them were the focus of former USU assistant basketball coach Brown’s message to students, community members and former student-athletes Friday, as part of Homecoming Week.
“Adversity only visits the strong but stays with the weak,” Brown said.
Many of Brown’s former players were in Logan for the weekend to serve as grand marshals in the parade. Jeff Tebbs was one of those players who played for USU from 1970-1972.
“We had a great mix of coaches and great combination of players,” Tebbs said. “Coach Brown pushed us for fitness. It made us tougher. They were some of the best coaches the state has ever seen.”
Brown was the assistant basketball coach at USU from 1966-1971. After leaving Logan, he coached at Washington State before moving again to spend the remainder of his career at Louisiana State. At LSU, he coached eventual NBA players like Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Jackson and Stanley Roberts. He was the winningest coach in LSU history and is the second-winningest coach in the SEC. He is also known for the graduation rates of his student-athletes. Of the 160 players he coached, 104 of them received college degrees. He is a member of the North Dakota and Louisiana sports halls of fame and the North Dakota and Louisiana basketball coaches halls of fame. He has been named an SEC Living Legend and has been named the National Basketball Coach of the Year, twice.
Brown had a lot of advice for the audience, athletes and non-athletes, alike. He had one thing, though, that he kept repeating.
“Don’t let anyone ever steal your dreams,” he said.
Brown said he always knew he wanted to be a college basketball coach. He sat down and wrote letters to coaches across the country inquiring about any job openings. Of the 300 letters he sent out, only two responded. One of those was the legendary Aggie coach, Ladell Andersen.
He said he took a salary cut to come to Logan, but decided it was worth it. Once he arrived, he was asked to be the head tennis coach, even though he said he knew nothing about tennis. He and his wife loved Logan, he said, and in the past he has said if there had been a job, they would still be living here.
Brown spent 44 years as a coach, and this was his first time coming back to Logan since he left in 1971, he said.
Jimmy Moore, compliance director in the USU athletics department, did not have the opportunity to play for Brown, but was recruited by him. Brown came to visit Moore in his mostly-segregated Mississippi town and got him to be an Aggie. The summer before Moore’s freshman year, Brown left Utah State.
“Coach Brown called me up and told me he was leaving USU, then he told me, ‘I still think you should go to Utah State. You’ll have a wonderful career and a great experience,'” Moore said. “That showed real honor and integrity.”
While Brown is a coach — and that’s the life he knows best — his message applied to real life. He has gone through a lot in his lifetime and made a lot out of nothing.
“This is life, not halftime,” he said.
Coming out of the blocks of life, the first hurdle to get over are the two words “I can’t,” Brown said.
If you put your mind to it and set your goals, you can do anything, he said. Brown told the story of Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal was 13 years old when Brown met him on a military base. He said O’Neal’s father was only interested in his son going on to succeed academically. He was cut from his high school basketball team for being too slow and not talented enough. Now, he is known as one of the most successful players in NBA history, Brown said. He will also be earning a doctorate this spring.
“If you always try your best and never give up, eventually God will take care of everything else,” Brown said.
Anyone with any hurdling experience knows the pattern. After a certain number of strides, another hurdle will come along, Brown said. That second hurdle is failure.
After he was not chosen for the head coaching position when Andersen left, Brown and his family moved to Washington. As they drove out of town, he said he looked back up Main Street.
He turned to his wife and daughter and said, “We are not going to leave this town bitter. We failed, but we’re not done.”
“It hurts to fail, it’s not a feeling anyone likes,” he said. “Welcome to the world.”
Eventually, the failures we experience will make us better and lead to success, he said.
Hurdle number three is going to be a handicap, Brown said. For some that may be an actual physical handicap that debilitates them, but that won’t always be it. He told a story of a blind man he once met who was determined to attend LSU and get a music degree.
“I had guys who were 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, who couldn’t find their way to class,” Brown said. “How on Earth was he going to be able to?”
A few months after meeting him, the blind student showed up in Brown’s office, having created his own bat-like SONAR system to help him get around. He went skydiving. He learned how to drive. And he graduated with a music degree from LSU, Brown said.
The fourth hurdle is to get to know yourself. Brown said this one comes at a time you won’t be expecting a hurdle. It will be taller and more in the way than the other three hurdles.
“Who am I? Where am I going? What do I really want out of my life?” he asked. “Those are the questions this hurdle will answer.”
As we go through these four guaranteed hurdles in life, Brown said we can gain experience and knowledge to help us succeed.
“Good comes from bad if you make it happen,” Brown said. “You do deserve true success and happiness.”
– megan.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu