Latest / The Ben Maller Show / The Fifth Hour: All Hail Dale Brown

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The Fifth Hour: All Hail Dale Brown · The Ben Maller Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Kaboom if you thought four hours a day 1200 minutes
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Speaker 1: a week was enough think again he's the last remnants
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Speaker 1: of the old republic a sole bastion of fairness he
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Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
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Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse wow the clearinghouse of
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Speaker 1: hot takes break free for something special the fifth hour
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Speaker 1: with ben maller starts right.
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Speaker 2: Now In the air everywhere, the Fifth Hour with me,
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Speaker 2: Ben Maller, and a happy, happy, happy Friday to you.
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Speaker 2: I am told it is the 30th day of October
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Speaker 2: as we are recording this podcast. You can listen whenever
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Speaker 2: you want. Many people do not listen the day the
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Speaker 2: podcast comes out. I've learned that from looking at the
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Speaker 2: analytics of the podcast. But as we are doing this,
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Speaker 2: it is the 303rd day of the year. There are
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Speaker 2: just 62 shopping days left. And until the end of
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Speaker 2: the year, the 44th week of 2026, we will get
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Speaker 2: to the All Hail Dale. Story. The all hail Dale
1:13
Speaker 2: story coming up momentarily. I want you to know it
1:15
Speaker 2: is national candy corn today. It's very important to go
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Speaker 2: out and buy candy corn because if big candy corn
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Speaker 2: doesn't sell enough candy corn, there will be no candy
1:24
Speaker 2: corn next year. There is no one that I know.
1:27
Speaker 2: And I've lived a fair amount of time now that
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Speaker 2: has gone out and bought candy corn other than around
1:33
Speaker 2: this time of the year. It is national checklist day.
1:35
Speaker 2: I am also informed. A holiday honoring the satisfaction of
1:40
Speaker 2: crossing things off a list. That's right, a list. Terry
1:45
Speaker 2: in England who used to listen and was actually on
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Speaker 2: this podcast at one point. It is National Breadstick Day today.
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Speaker 2: And I'm a little concerned. I've never been to Italy.
1:58
Speaker 2: At some point, I believe I'll get there as I'm
2:00
Speaker 2: getting a little older. The wife wants to travel more abroad.
2:04
Speaker 2: And so I get dragged the plus one. National Breadstick
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Speaker 2: Day today. And I'm worried if I go to Italy
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Speaker 2: and I go to a fine bistro somewhere in Italy
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Speaker 2: and they don't have breadsticks, I'll be bummed out. Kind
2:18
Speaker 2: of like my experience in Mexico City, where I am
2:21
Speaker 2: used to having the tortilla chip. That is part of
2:24
Speaker 2: the American-Mexican connection. And yet in Mexico City, I think
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Speaker 2: one of the restaurants we ate at gave us chips
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Speaker 2: out of many restaurants that we ate at. So that
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Speaker 2: would be disappointing because I judge an Italian restaurant by
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Speaker 2: the loaf of bread, the breadsticks that they put out
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Speaker 2: on the table. And I would be very upset if
2:43
Speaker 2: I went there and they didn't have anything that would
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Speaker 2: be annoying to me. It is Halloween Eve. Obviously, tonight
2:48
Speaker 2: is Halloween Eve. And that was a big event when
2:51
Speaker 2: I was a kid. I remember seeing video of Detroit
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Speaker 2: burning up. It was Devil's Night. I think it's called
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Speaker 2: Devil's Night. I don't know if it's still called Devil's Night.
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Speaker 2: I believe they changed the name of that. It's a
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Speaker 2: night of mischief. And I remember Detroit in particular when
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Speaker 2: I was a kid. They used to burn the crap
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Speaker 2: out of Detroit. I think Detroit's better now. That was
3:13
Speaker 2: a long time ago. It is Frankenstein Day today, so
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Speaker 2: celebrate appropriately there the last Friday of October. And Frankenstein
3:24
Speaker 2: is the scientist, not the monster. People confuse Frankenstein as
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Speaker 2: the monster. Frankenstein is the scientist, not the monster. People
3:33
Speaker 2: have been making that mistake for hundreds of years. And
3:35
Speaker 2: I use the Frankenstein name all the time in these
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Speaker 2: monologues because that is the colloquial term. And as we say,
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Speaker 2: the man that shot Liberty Valance, when the legend becomes
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Speaker 2: the fact, you go with the legend. You got to
3:50
Speaker 2: do it. Is National Text Your Ex Day? That sounds
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Speaker 2: like a good time, unless it's not. National Wicked Day,
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Speaker 2: commemorating the Broadway opening of Wicked Day. Way back in 03.
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Speaker 2: Barely remember that. Now, today is also an important day.
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Speaker 2: The reason I'm going through all this is because I
4:08
Speaker 2: want to let you know. Today is the anniversary of
4:15
Speaker 2: the single biggest radio broadcast in the history of the world.
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Speaker 2: There was a broadcast on this date. Many, many, many
4:28
Speaker 2: years ago, in fact, 88 years ago, I believe. We're
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Speaker 2: on the 88th anniversary of this. It was 1938. Do
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Speaker 2: you know what radio broadcast rocked, rocked the world and
4:42
Speaker 2: became a point of reference for future generations? Hey, you
4:46
Speaker 2: can't do this. And if you do this, you have
4:49
Speaker 2: to include this. That would be... The War of the Worlds.
4:59
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is. Let me explain, if
5:01
Speaker 2: you don't know. That was the original viral panic of 1938.
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Speaker 2: There was a gentleman named Orson Welles, a very influential
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Speaker 2: person in entertainment back in those years, the early years
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Speaker 2: of entertainment, modern American entertainment. And Orson Welles broadcast The
5:18
Speaker 2: War of the Worlds on CBS radio, It was a
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Speaker 2: fictional Martian invasion in New Jersey. And even though they
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Speaker 2: did put a disclaimer saying that this is all not real,
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Speaker 2: it frightened a number of listeners. There was supposedly nationwide panic.
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Speaker 2: Because back in those days, everyone listened to the radio. Now,
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Speaker 2: some say it was exaggerated and all that, but it
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Speaker 2: became a big deal. And I know when I was...
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Speaker 2: learning about radio and stuff, they said, well, if you
5:51
Speaker 2: do something like this, you're going to really lean into
5:54
Speaker 2: the disclaimer part of it because people, and it was
5:57
Speaker 2: a nighttime broadcast. People listen with half an ear, and
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Speaker 2: that's your thing. Today's the anniversary of also probably the
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Speaker 2: most famous fight in terms of name of a fight.
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Speaker 2: One of the all-time great names. I'd say the greatest
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Speaker 2: name for a fight. There have been some wild fights
6:14
Speaker 2: as far as names. Boxing promoters used to be very
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Speaker 2: big back in the day. I would say, and I
6:18
Speaker 2: think you'd agree with me, the single greatest fight, name, 1974,
6:25
Speaker 2: on this date, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All right?
6:33
Speaker 2: The rumble in the jungle. Muhammad Ali shocking the boxing
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Speaker 2: world by knocking out the undefeated. George Foreman in the
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Speaker 2: eighth round in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And
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Speaker 2: that happened on this date 52 years ago. 52 years
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Speaker 2: ago that happened. Here is also the anniversary of President
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Speaker 2: John Adams, the second president. You never remember the second.
7:01
Speaker 2: You don't. You don't. He was born in the Commonwealth
7:05
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts in the year 1735. What else? It's Adam. No,
7:14
Speaker 2: it's not his birthday. What is it? Henry Winkler. The
7:18
Speaker 2: Fonz turns 81 today. Very popular back in the day.
7:23
Speaker 2: So those are some of the things. But the big one,
7:25
Speaker 2: the two big ones, you've got the viral panic of
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Speaker 2: the War of the Worlds and the anniversary of the
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Speaker 2: rumble in the jungle. Yeah, not bad, right? Come on.
7:38
Speaker 2: Come on. There was also some nuclear bomb test in
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Speaker 2: the Soviet Union back in the 60s, which we don't
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Speaker 2: need to get into. 50 megatons, supposedly? Anyway. All right.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into it. On this edition of the Fifth
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Speaker 2: Hour with me, Ben Maller, a tribute to college basketball's
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Speaker 2: lost generation of carnival barkers, philosophers, evil dictators, and absolutely
8:04
Speaker 2: freaking great lunatics. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I bet you didn't expect me to talk about college
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Speaker 2: basketball today. I was triggered by what? Well, I saw
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Speaker 2: recently that a very prominent figure in college basketball had
8:24
Speaker 2: made the news. And I want to get into it.
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Speaker 2: So I once worked with Dale Brown. Yeah, that Dale Brown. Now,
8:31
Speaker 2: if you know, you know. You might not know who
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Speaker 2: Dale Brown is. Dale Brown was the legendary... LSU basketball coach.
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Speaker 2: He is the guy that discovered Shaquille O'Neal, the man
8:42
Speaker 2: who turned Baton Rouge into something other than a football
8:48
Speaker 2: town for a little bit. It was a basketball town
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Speaker 2: and for a little bit, in fact, approximately 48 hours,
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Speaker 2: Dale Brown was my broadcast partner. This is a true story.
9:03
Speaker 2: Some of the names have been changed to protect You
9:05
Speaker 2: know what? So I'm not sure if this was a
9:09
Speaker 2: good idea. I'm not sure anyone involved at the time
9:13
Speaker 2: thought about this. And I'm reasonably certain that somewhere in
9:17
Speaker 2: the archives, in the bowels of Fox Sports Radio, there
9:21
Speaker 2: was a memo explaining how this happened and should have
9:25
Speaker 2: been destroyed years ago. But it did happen. And I
9:29
Speaker 2: wanted to bring it up today. Part of the reason
9:32
Speaker 2: is this podcast is to help occasionally me remember people.
9:38
Speaker 2: I'll go back and listen to some of this crap
9:40
Speaker 2: at some point and say, oh, yeah, I remember that.
9:43
Speaker 2: Because as time goes on, some of these stories start
9:46
Speaker 2: to fade a little bit. You start changing things around.
9:49
Speaker 2: And I don't want to be that guy. So I
9:51
Speaker 2: bring this up. The reason I'm doing this is Dale
9:53
Speaker 2: Brown died recently at the age of 90 within the
9:58
Speaker 2: last week. he was eight days shy of his 91st
10:02
Speaker 2: birthday and dale brown is part of the fox sports
10:06
Speaker 2: radio alumni association now we don't have jackets we don't
10:12
Speaker 2: have reunions we certainly don't have a pension plan when
10:15
Speaker 2: you work at fox sports radio but we have stories
10:18
Speaker 2: a lot of stories And this one is my story.
10:22
Speaker 2: It's about 20 years ago, and I don't remember the
10:24
Speaker 2: exact date, but about 20 years ago, the management at
10:27
Speaker 2: the time at Fox Sports Radio had a lot of money.
10:31
Speaker 2: They didn't mind spending it. It was a different time.
10:34
Speaker 2: They weren't pinching pennies back then. So the management decided
10:38
Speaker 2: that we needed some razzle-dazzle for the NCAA tournament. So
10:43
Speaker 2: they thought it would be a wonderful idea to, first
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Speaker 2: of all, hire Dale Brown, pay Dale Brown... as a
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Speaker 2: college basketball analyst, for the opening two days of the
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Speaker 2: NCAA tournament, Thursday and Friday. Wall-to-wall basketball, 16 games a day.
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Speaker 2: Buzzer beaters to the right, Cinderella stories to the left.
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Speaker 2: You know the drill. Brackets being busted. Grown men pretending
11:08
Speaker 2: they know something about the Patriot League. And management at
11:13
Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio at the time decided that I, yours truly,
11:17
Speaker 2: blowhard Benny... should be the point guard. Now, I'm more
11:23
Speaker 2: of a hammer-dunk-power-forward guy or a money-ball-Maller-jump-shot guy from the outside.
11:29
Speaker 2: Management said, no, no, we want Maller to be the
11:30
Speaker 2: point guard. My assignment was simple. Set up Dale Brown,
11:35
Speaker 2: ask questions, keep the conversation moving, make sure that the
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Speaker 2: legendary college basketball coach had every opportunity to share his wisdom,
11:45
Speaker 2: to make him the star of the show. Now, let
11:48
Speaker 2: me explain something. While I do vote for the John R.
11:51
Speaker 2: Wooden Award, I am not exactly John R.
11:53
Speaker 1: Wooden.
11:54
Speaker 2: I'm a radio gasbag. My primary profession is gasbaggery. My
12:01
Speaker 2: qualification is to be able to talk continuously for four
12:06
Speaker 2: or more hours without requiring much oxygen. And suddenly I
12:12
Speaker 2: was being asked to quarterback a broadcast with a man
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Speaker 2: who had coached Shaquille O'Neal. And naturally, I assumed that
12:21
Speaker 2: this would go swimmingly. So Dale flew in from Baton Rouge.
12:27
Speaker 2: I believe he was still living in Baton Rouge at
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Speaker 2: the time. He flew in from Louisiana. And we spoke
12:31
Speaker 2: briefly on the phone before the tournament. He could not
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Speaker 2: have been nicer. True sweetheart of a man, Dale Brown.
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Speaker 2: He was very warm, friendly, enthusiastic. As my colleague back
12:43
Speaker 2: in the day, Tom Looney, says, these coaches have to
12:45
Speaker 2: be relatable to young people. So they have to be
12:49
Speaker 2: able to communicate with younger people. And I was much
12:51
Speaker 2: younger than Dale Brown at the time. I'm still much younger. Anyway,
12:54
Speaker 2: it could not have been cooler. And we had a
12:57
Speaker 2: very pleasant, fun conversation. He had that unmistakable personality of
13:03
Speaker 2: the kind of guy who could sell you a 40-year-old
13:08
Speaker 2: used Buick, convince you that it was a Rolls Royce,
13:12
Speaker 2: and make you feel guilty for not buying another car
13:14
Speaker 2: from him. And so he arrived at the hotel down
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Speaker 2: the street from the Fox Sports Radio studios and immediately
13:20
Speaker 2: began prepping. And he was telling me about it. He
13:23
Speaker 2: came in, he had some notes, and I was very impressed.
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Speaker 2: Here is a legendary coach, decades of experience, taking notes
13:33
Speaker 2: about the biggest college basketball event of the year, a
13:37
Speaker 2: man who was hired for this gig, a consummate professional, except...
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Speaker 2: There was one small problem. So Dale came in. He
13:47
Speaker 2: had a stack of papers. He had like a bag
13:50
Speaker 2: of I don't know what at the time. And there
13:53
Speaker 2: was one small problem. The notes that he had been
13:56
Speaker 2: working on at the hotel were not really about basketball.
14:01
Speaker 1: What? Yeah.
14:03
Speaker 2: They were motivational slogans. Inspirational sayings, life lessons, philosophical observations.
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Speaker 2: You see, Dale had apparently decided that March Madness was
14:15
Speaker 2: less about defending the pick and roll and more about
14:19
Speaker 2: defending the human spirit. And he actually gave me a
14:23
Speaker 2: couple of books, not loaned, gave. He had written the books.
14:29
Speaker 2: He wanted me to absorb his way of the world,
14:32
Speaker 2: his philosophy, his worldview, his motivational message. I was like, wow,
14:37
Speaker 2: no one's ever given me books to do a radio show.
14:40
Speaker 2: And I appreciated it. And it was great. Although I
14:45
Speaker 2: got to tell you, personally, I would have appreciated knowing
14:47
Speaker 2: whether the 12 seed could handle a full court press
14:51
Speaker 2: and whether the point guard for the 13 seed had
14:54
Speaker 2: good handles or not. Minor details like that. So anyway,
14:59
Speaker 2: Thursday morning arrives. The games begin. You know, in West
15:03
Speaker 2: Coast time, the games begin. And there we are. The
15:07
Speaker 2: dynamic duo. You've got me, Ben, on one side, Dale
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Speaker 2: Brown on the other. A partnership nobody wanted, nobody requested this,
15:15
Speaker 2: and nobody had the courage to stop. So I'd ask
15:17
Speaker 2: Dale about a particular matchup, a defensive adjustment, some hardy,
15:22
Speaker 2: sport-o thing, or maybe a team rebounding, having issues rebounding,
15:28
Speaker 2: and somehow we'd end up discussing perseverance, positive thinking, the
15:33
Speaker 2: importance of believing in yourself. And Dale was terrific. when
15:37
Speaker 2: the subject was Dale Brown. God love him. His life,
15:41
Speaker 2: his books, his experiences, his philosophy. The actual tournament games.
15:49
Speaker 1: Eh.
15:50
Speaker 2: Let's just say I got the impression that my friend
15:53
Speaker 2: at the time for those two days, Dale Brown, had
15:55
Speaker 2: not spent months and months watching college basketball outside of LSU.
16:01
Speaker 2: He did know and mention some coaches that he was
16:04
Speaker 2: buddies with. Yeah, no, I can't prove that he did
16:09
Speaker 2: not watch much college basketball. I didn't administer a written exam.
16:12
Speaker 2: There was no lie detector test. But there were moments
16:15
Speaker 2: when I suspected that the man knew more about the
16:18
Speaker 2: inspirational teachings of ancient philosophers from the old country than
16:22
Speaker 2: the starting backcourt at Gonzaga. But it's just crazy. And
16:27
Speaker 2: here's the wonderful part. You might think, well, what are
16:30
Speaker 2: you saying bad things about Dale Brown? No, I'm not.
16:32
Speaker 2: I absolutely loved him. could not, again, could not have
16:36
Speaker 2: been nicer, could not have been more of a sweetheart.
16:38
Speaker 2: He was one of the coolest people that I've encountered
16:41
Speaker 2: or come across in the media business. There's not many.
16:45
Speaker 2: Jim Mora, who we've had on this podcast, I should
16:47
Speaker 2: have gotten Dale Brown on. Bad job by me. I
16:49
Speaker 2: have his number. I mostly can't use it now, although
16:52
Speaker 2: it will stay in my phone. As you know, when
16:54
Speaker 2: someone dies, their number does not leave my phone. Dale
16:59
Speaker 2: Brown can have conversations with Tommy Lasorda and all the
17:03
Speaker 2: other ones that are in there that have checked out
17:06
Speaker 2: and have fine, fine conversations. But he was great. He
17:10
Speaker 2: was great. He wasn't pretending to be somebody else. He
17:13
Speaker 2: wasn't trying to impress me with analytics. Of course, back
17:16
Speaker 2: then they weren't as big as they are now. He
17:17
Speaker 2: wasn't reading talking points prepared by a PR person. He
17:21
Speaker 2: was authentic Dale Brown. Take it or leave it. Mostly
17:26
Speaker 2: you took it. And that brings me to something bigger.
17:30
Speaker 2: Something that has been bothering me because with the passing
17:35
Speaker 2: of Dale Brown, we haven't simply lost another icon of basketball.
17:42
Speaker 2: We have lost another member of an endangered species. I
17:46
Speaker 2: remember a few years back, there was a big special
17:49
Speaker 2: about the greatest generation, World War II veterans and how
17:52
Speaker 2: cool they were, how important they were and how tough
17:55
Speaker 2: they were and all that stuff. And while this is
17:58
Speaker 2: nowhere near what that is, I still will point out
18:01
Speaker 2: it is an endangered species situation. And I'm talking about
18:06
Speaker 2: the great American college basketball character. Let's go back in
18:11
Speaker 2: the hot tub time machine. Believe it or not, there
18:13
Speaker 2: was a time, boys and girls, where college basketball coaches
18:18
Speaker 2: were celebrities. I mean, bigger than life celebrities. Not assistant coaches,
18:23
Speaker 2: not celebrities because they had a podcast. Actual celebrities. When
18:28
Speaker 2: I was growing up, back in my day, college basketball
18:31
Speaker 2: was in many ways a much bigger deal than the NBA.
18:34
Speaker 2: Big Monday was appointment television. The NCAA tournament was not
18:38
Speaker 2: just the only time we watched college basketball. You didn't
18:41
Speaker 2: need a gambling app and 17 prop bets. You didn't
18:44
Speaker 2: need seven streaming subscriptions and a doctorate in computer science
18:47
Speaker 2: to find a game. You just turned on CBS on
18:51
Speaker 2: the weekends or ESPN, and there they were. ABC had them,
18:55
Speaker 2: the coaches. Oh, the coaches. What a magnificent collection, a
19:01
Speaker 2: hodgepodge of egomaniacs, philosophers. There were some tyrants, some salesmen,
19:06
Speaker 2: some comedians, carnival barkers. It was awesome. These guys did
19:12
Speaker 2: not need reality television. They were reality television. And the
19:16
Speaker 2: greatest thing about growing up watching this is they were
19:20
Speaker 2: all completely different. Today, I don't watch much college basketball
19:26
Speaker 2: until it gets later in the season. I do have
19:28
Speaker 2: to watch a certain amount to verify my John R.
19:32
Speaker 2: Wooden vote. I normally what they'll do is they'll send
19:34
Speaker 2: out a watch list of the wooden people to watch.
19:37
Speaker 2: And those are the people that I'll check out while
19:39
Speaker 2: watching other things. I'll flip over and watch them and
19:42
Speaker 2: all that stuff. So you watch college basketball today and
19:48
Speaker 2: they all wear these coaches wear these quarter zip pullover
19:52
Speaker 2: things that look like they were purchased in bulk from
19:56
Speaker 2: somewhere on Timu for a corporate retreat. They speak in
20:00
Speaker 2: the same language. monotone cliches. We got to execute. We
20:05
Speaker 2: got to compete. That's a good team over there. We've
20:07
Speaker 2: got to trust the process. Thank you, coach, Captain Obvious.
20:12
Speaker 2: Why don't I just talk to sportscliché. com? I could have
20:15
Speaker 2: gotten the analytics from the assistant manager at a tire store.
20:20
Speaker 2: Back then, well, back then you had Bobby Knight, the general.
20:24
Speaker 2: Indiana's basketball dictator. Bunch of national championships, hundreds of victories.
20:30
Speaker 2: He had no control over his emotions. He was like
20:35
Speaker 2: a cigar about to explode. He didn't coach college basketball
20:39
Speaker 2: Bobby Knight. He conducted military operations as a drill sergeant.
20:43
Speaker 2: He screamed, he stomped, sick and tired of losing to Purdue,
20:48
Speaker 2: and if you're going to run, and you're going to run.
20:51
Speaker 2: And the famous quote, when I die, I hope they
20:54
Speaker 2: bury me upside down so all my critics can kiss
20:57
Speaker 2: my ass. Hilarious. I don't believe he was buried upside down,
21:02
Speaker 2: but he was an intimidator. He would have been banned,
21:06
Speaker 2: would have never had the career he had then today.
21:09
Speaker 2: And he threw a chair across the court, a chair. Today,
21:15
Speaker 2: Coach gets fired. for even thinking about that. Certainly fine
21:19
Speaker 2: for criticizing the officiating and all that. Bobby Knight treated
21:22
Speaker 2: furniture like a projectile weapon. And somehow, the chair became
21:27
Speaker 2: one of the most famous pieces of sports equipment in
21:30
Speaker 2: American history. Imagine being in that chair. You spend your
21:33
Speaker 2: entire life, people sitting there, tuchuses on you, and you're
21:37
Speaker 2: just waiting for somebody to... That's all you do. You
21:41
Speaker 2: wait for somebody to sit on you, and then suddenly
21:42
Speaker 2: you're flying across national television. No warning, no parachute. I
21:47
Speaker 2: don't believe there was any representation from a union. But wait,
21:51
Speaker 2: there's more. How about Jerry Tarkanian? The great Tark the Shark.
21:55
Speaker 2: Towel-chewing outlaw from Sin City back when the mob ran Vegas.
22:00
Speaker 2: When it was the real Vegas. You didn't spend $ 35
22:02
Speaker 2: to park. The food was cheap. The rooms were cheap.
22:07
Speaker 2: They wanted you to spend your money on the gambling.
22:10
Speaker 2: The running rebels back in the day. UNLV. He coached
22:15
Speaker 2: UNLV like he was running a casino that happened to
22:18
Speaker 2: just have a basketball court attached. The running Rebels were fast.
22:22
Speaker 2: They were exciting. They were like an NBA team. The
22:24
Speaker 2: Harlem Globetrotters mixed together. They every once in a while
22:28
Speaker 2: actually followed the NCAA rulebook. Mostly it was like an
22:31
Speaker 2: organized crime operation, although it seemed. Tarkanian sat on the
22:36
Speaker 2: bench chewing the towel all the time. I saw him
22:40
Speaker 2: when I was a kid. Growing up in Orange County,
22:43
Speaker 2: the biggest game of the year at the Brent Events
22:45
Speaker 2: Center and Crawford Hall. Those are the two arenas UC
22:49
Speaker 2: Irvine played at. Crawford Hall was the original at the
22:52
Speaker 2: Brent Events Center at UC Irvine. And when UNLV came in,
22:57
Speaker 2: it was like, man, these are the rock stars. These
22:59
Speaker 2: are the Beatles. And they sold out. They had all
23:02
Speaker 2: these future NBA players. It was crazy. And TARC, Bigger
23:05
Speaker 2: Than Life. I got to see them a couple times.
23:08
Speaker 2: It was really cool. It was really cool. And the
23:12
Speaker 2: towel that he had, I was like, that magical towel.
23:17
Speaker 2: Did he use the same towel? Did the towel have
23:20
Speaker 2: a favorite? I don't know. What is a towel? Friends?
23:24
Speaker 2: Was there a towel budget? Did the equipment manager have
23:27
Speaker 2: to explain to the athletic director why the basketball program
23:30
Speaker 2: was going through 600 towels a month? But Tarkanian was
23:33
Speaker 2: perfect for Las Vegas. He was perfect for that time.
23:37
Speaker 2: He looked like a guy who knew where the bodies
23:40
Speaker 2: were buried. and could recommend the greatest buffet afterwards and
23:44
Speaker 2: a speakeasy. Like, he knew all that. He knew all that. However,
23:49
Speaker 2: we're not done. How about John Chaney? Then there was
23:51
Speaker 2: John Chaney at Temple. Now, that was a character. Gruff guy.
23:57
Speaker 2: Chaney famously held practices before sunrise. I don't even consider
24:02
Speaker 2: that morning. I don't think the morning starts until the
24:05
Speaker 2: sun comes up. If the sun has not come up yet,
24:08
Speaker 2: it's still last night. And the man was coaching basketball
24:13
Speaker 2: at an hour when most college students were either sleeping
24:16
Speaker 2: or trying to remember where they had left their shoes.
24:19
Speaker 2: And here's John Chaney, the gruff disciplinarian, a preacher, a philosopher,
24:25
Speaker 2: a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
24:27
Speaker 2: And the most famous John Chaney story is when he
24:29
Speaker 2: threatened to kill John Calipari, who's still coaching, during a
24:33
Speaker 2: confrontation after a game. That was wonderful. That was great.
24:38
Speaker 2: And now, you know, if you're I should not endorse that.
24:42
Speaker 2: I thought it was hilarious. I'm simply pointing out that
24:45
Speaker 2: the modern postgame handshake line has become considerably less entertaining
24:50
Speaker 2: because everyone hugs each other. Can you imagine that happening
24:55
Speaker 2: in the age of social media? There would be an
24:57
Speaker 2: emergency news conference. There would be three lawyers, six university administrators.
25:01
Speaker 2: There would be a mandatory sensitivity seminar, and you'd still
25:06
Speaker 2: lose your job. Then we got Jim Valvano. Jimmy V.
25:12
Speaker 2: No relation to Bob Valvano, our friend from Colorado called up.
25:15
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find Bob Valvano. This is Jimmy Valvano.
25:18
Speaker 2: Jimmy V. The showman. The comedian. The motivational speaker who
25:24
Speaker 2: really seemed to love basketball. Really loved it. Valvano could
25:30
Speaker 2: tell a story. He could charm. He was like a
25:33
Speaker 2: snake charmer. Charm you. And then win a national championship,
25:38
Speaker 2: that 1983 North Carolina State team, if you were around
25:40
Speaker 2: at that time, one of the all-time great Cinderella stories
25:45
Speaker 2: in that sport. And there was that highlight of Jimmy
25:49
Speaker 2: V running around the court after the championship looking like
25:54
Speaker 2: he just couldn't find anyone to hug. He didn't know
25:56
Speaker 2: who to hug, and he just wanted a hug and
25:59
Speaker 2: looked like a man who had just won the lottery
26:01
Speaker 2: and misplaced the ticket. And later... His famous message about laughing, thinking,
26:07
Speaker 2: and crying before becoming... He was part of that tragedy
26:12
Speaker 2: where he was sick, he was dying, and he gave
26:13
Speaker 2: that speech at the award show about laughing, thinking, and crying,
26:17
Speaker 2: and that was part of his enduring legacy. That was
26:19
Speaker 2: his legacy. And that's the thing about these coaches. Interchangeable.
26:25
Speaker 2: You couldn't take Bobby Knight and... They were not interchangeable.
26:31
Speaker 2: Today they're interchangeable is what I'm trying to say. You
26:33
Speaker 2: couldn't take Bobby Knight and put him in Jim Valvano's suit,
26:38
Speaker 2: and it just wouldn't work. Knight would have strangled the suit.
26:42
Speaker 2: There were so many other characters. Lefty Duzell at Maryland,
26:46
Speaker 2: another chef's kiss. He had that southern drawl, the swagger,
26:51
Speaker 2: and the great sales pitches back before NIL when you
26:55
Speaker 2: actually had to, unless you had a, car dealer paying
26:58
Speaker 2: off the players you still had to go out and recruit.
27:00
Speaker 2: Lefty was a Southern basketball salesman who could make a
27:05
Speaker 2: prospect believe that College Park, Maryland was the center of
27:10
Speaker 2: the known universe. And he was good with the bull crap.
27:15
Speaker 2: I believe he promised to make Maryland the UCLA of
27:19
Speaker 2: the East, which is a very, very nice thought. We
27:24
Speaker 2: are still waiting for somebody to promise to make UCLA
27:28
Speaker 2: the Maryland of the West. That has not happened. The
27:32
Speaker 2: ambition of Lefty Drizelle. And cut out of that same cloth,
27:38
Speaker 2: you had Roley Massimino, the Villanova maestro, the man who
27:43
Speaker 2: orchestrated that Villanova Wildcats 1985 national championship over Big Bad Georgetown.
27:52
Speaker 2: And Raleigh Massimino had the unmistakable old-school personality. He was
27:57
Speaker 2: buddies with Tommy Lasorda. Of course he was. Those two
28:02
Speaker 2: belonged together. They were built from the same material. Pasta, passion,
28:07
Speaker 2: unlimited conversation, the gift of gab, and just great. I
28:13
Speaker 2: can only imagine putting Raleigh Massimino and Tommy Lasorda at
28:17
Speaker 2: the same dinner table. The restaurant would have to apply
28:20
Speaker 2: for a special permit to remain open until sunrise. And
28:25
Speaker 2: don't forget Luke Karnaseka, another bigger-than-life personality, Luke Karnaseka at St. John's,
28:30
Speaker 2: little Louie, big sweater guy, colorful sweaters, animated, typical old-school
28:37
Speaker 2: New York guy. He looked like a cab driver who
28:41
Speaker 2: was somebody's grandfather who accidentally wandered into Madison Square Garden
28:47
Speaker 2: and decided, I'll coach the team. The sweaters were next level.
28:51
Speaker 2: The outfit, they were great. They were like weather events.
28:55
Speaker 2: You could probably see one from outer space. I mean,
29:01
Speaker 2: there were a bunch of others. Digger Phelps at Notre Dame.
29:04
Speaker 2: If you're of a certain age, you know who Digger
29:05
Speaker 2: Phelps is, the slicked-haired showman. Loved the spotlight. That guy,
29:10
Speaker 2: he wanted everyone to look at me. He was look
29:13
Speaker 2: at me guy, is what he was. Loved being Digger.
29:16
Speaker 2: He was the kind of coach who could turn a
29:18
Speaker 2: regular season basketball game into a Broadway production. With him
29:22
Speaker 2: conveniently cast in the starring role, there was no shortage
29:26
Speaker 2: of ego in him or any of these guys. And
29:31
Speaker 2: at least it was entertaining. And my personal favorite among
29:35
Speaker 2: the Endless amounts of coaches was... in terms of the
29:40
Speaker 2: large coach, Rick Majerus, the big man from Utah, Rick Majerus,
29:46
Speaker 2: a walking stand-up comedy act, self-deprecating, brilliant, endlessly quotable. Majerus
29:53
Speaker 2: looked like he had just finished a large plate of
29:56
Speaker 2: chicken parm And was debating whether to order the Tierra
30:01
Speaker 2: Masu or just have a little scoop of ice cream.
30:04
Speaker 2: And had somehow been interrupted by having to coach a
30:08
Speaker 2: basketball game in Salt Lake City, that hotbed of good
30:12
Speaker 2: Italian food. And I adored Rick Majerus. I thought this
30:16
Speaker 2: guy was so great. And I was so happy... I
30:21
Speaker 2: was thrilled when the University of Southern California, better known
30:24
Speaker 2: as USC, hired Rick Majerus. I said, finally, they got
30:26
Speaker 2: a real coach, a character, a big personality, somebody who
30:31
Speaker 2: might make Southern California college basketball interesting outside of UCLA
30:37
Speaker 2: every once in a while. And then he quit before
30:41
Speaker 2: he even coached the game. He just freaked out, couldn't
30:46
Speaker 2: do it. L.A. was too big, and he quit. Of
30:49
Speaker 2: course he did. I had barely finished my emotional investment
30:54
Speaker 2: in my sporting life. I was like, I'm going to
30:57
Speaker 2: go to USC games. I'm going to be able to
30:58
Speaker 2: be friends with Rick Majerus. I spent more time deciding
31:01
Speaker 2: which pizza topping to order. Do I go with the onion,
31:06
Speaker 2: the bell pepper? Do I have the garlic? Do I
31:08
Speaker 2: mix it up, throw something else on there, maybe pineapple?
31:12
Speaker 2: But that's what made Rick Majerus memorable. He was funny
31:15
Speaker 2: without trying to be a comedian. He was authentic. It
31:19
Speaker 2: seemed he was authentic. I never really knew him, so
31:22
Speaker 2: who knows? But it's a rare commodity, which brings us
31:24
Speaker 2: all the way back, full circle, to Dale Brown, because
31:28
Speaker 2: Dale belonged in that fraternity. He coached at LSU from
31:31
Speaker 2: 1972 to 1977, or 1997, rather. It was only five years.
31:33
Speaker 2: It was 1977. It was 97, 72 to 97, 25 seasons.
31:34
Speaker 2: He won almost 450 games, a couple of Final Fours.
31:48
Speaker 2: He took a football school and manipulated it into a
31:52
Speaker 2: must-see product on television. And he did it in Louisiana.
31:57
Speaker 2: Think about that. Football is not merely a sport there.
32:00
Speaker 2: I'm told it is a civic religion. And Dale Brown
32:04
Speaker 2: convinced the good people of Louisiana that basketball deserved a
32:08
Speaker 2: place at the altar. And he was a part preacher,
32:13
Speaker 2: part salesman, part philosopher. And the greatest recruiting story I
32:19
Speaker 2: can remember, at least recently, is he was out in
32:25
Speaker 2: a military base in Germany. Back then they had East
32:29
Speaker 2: and West Germany. He was in West Germany. And he
32:32
Speaker 2: encountered a young lad, a 13-year-old kid, at a basketball clinic.
32:38
Speaker 2: American military base in Germany named Shaquille O'Neal. Imagine that.
32:45
Speaker 2: Somewhere in Germany, a teenage Shaquille O'Neal, probably seven feet
32:49
Speaker 2: tall at the time, walking around, and Dale Brown spots him.
32:53
Speaker 2: That is not recruiting. That is discovering a dinosaur in
32:56
Speaker 2: your backyard. Now, eventually Shaq winds up at LSU. I
33:00
Speaker 2: think most of us know his story. The rest is
33:02
Speaker 2: basketball history. Now, would Shaquille O'Neal have become famous and
33:07
Speaker 2: played in the NBA without Dale Brown? Probably. Probably. The
33:12
Speaker 2: man was gigantic, ginormous. He had a physical ability to
33:18
Speaker 2: overpower people and not exactly easy to overlook. Now, I
33:23
Speaker 2: will tell you. The other guy that Dale Brown coached
33:26
Speaker 2: with Shaq was a more talented offensive player. Even Shaq
33:30
Speaker 2: would admit this. Stanley Roberts. Stanley Roberts had amazing ability offensively.
33:38
Speaker 2: He just couldn't stop eating and ate himself out of
33:41
Speaker 2: the league. There were some other issues with substances. He
33:45
Speaker 2: got banned from the NBA. Anyway, back to the story.
33:47
Speaker 2: So Dale Brown helped put Shaq on the road to superstar, right? That,
33:53
Speaker 2: Connection alone would make Dale Brown a big part of
33:56
Speaker 2: the world of basketball all time. And yet what I
34:01
Speaker 2: remember most isn't the Final Fours. It's not the recruiting.
34:04
Speaker 2: It's not Shaq. It's those two days, two days at
34:09
Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio that we sat side by side, hotel notes,
34:14
Speaker 2: motivational books, conversations in the breaks that wandered away from basketball,
34:19
Speaker 2: even on the air. and into whatever philosophical neighborhood Dale
34:24
Speaker 2: happened to be visiting. And I remember the day two
34:28
Speaker 2: of the tournament, the Friday, I came in there and
34:31
Speaker 2: Dale's like, hey, did you read the book? He wanted
34:33
Speaker 2: me to quote the book, to prove that I read
34:35
Speaker 2: the book, one of the motivational books that he gave.
34:39
Speaker 2: I was supposed to be running a basketball broadcast, and
34:42
Speaker 2: Dale was apparently conducting a seminar on the human condition,
34:46
Speaker 2: and somehow we made it work. At least nobody in
34:50
Speaker 2: management pulled the plug, and I consider that a victory
34:54
Speaker 2: in radio. But the larger point is that college basketball
34:58
Speaker 2: used to be a coach's league as much as a
35:01
Speaker 2: player's league. In fact, in many ways, it was a
35:03
Speaker 2: bigger league for the coaches. And you turned in to watch.
35:08
Speaker 2: You turned on the game. You tuned in to watch
35:10
Speaker 2: the teams. You stayed to watch the coaches. You wanted
35:13
Speaker 2: to see what Bobby Knight might throw. Jerry Tarkanian chewing
35:18
Speaker 2: on the towel, Lou Carneseca wearing the clown sweater, and
35:22
Speaker 2: what Dale Brown might say. Now, today, times have changed.
35:26
Speaker 2: The coaches are protected. These are big institutions. It's semi-professional basketball.
35:32
Speaker 2: The players are paid. The coaches are better packaged. They're
35:36
Speaker 2: media-trained and savvy, and they're taught not to embarrass the school,
35:41
Speaker 2: not to stand out too much. They have media consultants trained.
35:44
Speaker 2: They have communications directors who they actually listen to. They
35:47
Speaker 2: have those quarter zips, those awful personality-suppressing quarter zips. I'm
35:53
Speaker 2: convinced that it's just too much. It is just too much.
35:58
Speaker 2: The outfits that they wear today compared to where they
36:03
Speaker 2: were back in the day. It was just crazy. Anyway, listen. Entertainment-wise,
36:10
Speaker 2: it was great. It was wonderful music. Those coaches to
36:15
Speaker 2: grow up in that time and the individuality, the unpredictability
36:21
Speaker 2: of grown men who treated a basketball game like a
36:23
Speaker 2: religious crusade, a family feud like a Broadway edition. And
36:28
Speaker 2: Dale Brown was one of those guys. And we talked
36:34
Speaker 2: about him here and all that he did and all
36:37
Speaker 2: that he accomplished in his career. And it's it's just
36:43
Speaker 2: great dude i hadn't thought about dale in a while
36:46
Speaker 2: obviously we only worked together for a couple of days
36:48
Speaker 2: and uh it was wonderful it was wonderful to you
36:52
Speaker 2: know just to see his name and reminisce i mean
36:53
Speaker 2: obviously he died and sad and all that stuff and
36:56
Speaker 2: and think about watching basketball and and all the different
37:00
Speaker 2: things and the things about dale brown and These years,
37:05
Speaker 2: years and years have gone by, and I think I
37:08
Speaker 2: finally understand what Dale was trying to teach me in
37:10
Speaker 2: those two days. Basketball comes and goes. Brackets get busted.
37:15
Speaker 2: Championship banners collect dust. And the characters, though, the characters
37:20
Speaker 2: are what you remember. And Dale Brown is one hell
37:23
Speaker 2: of a character. So, again, to put the ball on this,
37:26
Speaker 2: rest in peace, coach. And wherever you are, I hope somebody,
37:32
Speaker 2: is listening across the pearly gates to your motivational speeches.
37:35
Speaker 2: And hopefully you've got Jimmy Ray from Tampa Bay and
37:39
Speaker 2: Jeannie in Medford and our friend from the Bay Area,
37:44
Speaker 2: the Raider A's blah, blah, blah fan, Tom Brady Rose fan,
37:48
Speaker 2: all these guys, and you're just having a good time.
37:52
Speaker 2: because I know one thing about Dale Brown. You're probably
37:55
Speaker 2: not watching any college basketball right now. You're probably not
37:57
Speaker 2: watching the game. Anyway, have a great rest of your Friday.
38:02
Speaker 2: If you would like to send a correspondence in for
38:05
Speaker 2: the Sunday mailbag, try to do that today by the
38:08
Speaker 2: end of the day. Can you do that by the
38:11
Speaker 2: end of the day? That would really help us out.
38:13
Speaker 2: The email address is realfifthouratgmail.com. That's all letters, no numbers, realfifthouratgmail.com.
38:22
Speaker 2: Name and city, name and city, name and city if
38:23
Speaker 2: you want credit. Otherwise, I'll just goof on you. Name
38:26
Speaker 2: and city, name and city, name and city. Real5thHour at gmail.com.
38:30
Speaker 2: We'll have a new fresh pod on Saturday and then
38:33
Speaker 2: obviously the mailbag on Sunday. Have a wonderful, glorious rest
38:38
Speaker 2: of your day. Bye-bye. Bye-bye, as Dick and Dayton would say.