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1991. One of my favorite games ever. The Gym was alive that afternoon, a veritable powder keg of tension.

AuricGoldfinger wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 10:17 am 1991. One of my favorite games ever. The Gym was alive that afternoon, a veritable powder keg of tension.

Dale Brown was one of four SEC coaches who were ejected from games in Memorial Gym (all Vanderbilt wins) in 1991.
My favorite Dale Brown story is from a 1987 regional final game in which Indiana narrowly beat LSU. After the game, Bobby Knight said he had been nervous in the final minute, until he looked over to the LSU bench and was reminded that they were being coached by Dale Brown.

In my junior year of high school ('75-'76), after our high school game on a Friday night, two other teammates and I went to the Vanderbilt Holiday Inn, where the LSU team was staying prior to playing Vanderbilt the next night. One of my friends had somehow met Dale Brown and gotten to know him a little bit - maybe a year or so before. We went to the hotel lobby; the guy at the desk wasn't allowed to give us Coach Brown's room number, but he did call the room and hand the phone to my friend, who told Coach Brown who he was, and that he was downstairs with a couple of friends. Coach Brown said to come on up, told us his room number - and - we went and visited with him for about 30 minutes until he had to do bed check for the LSU team. I've never known what exactly I thought about Coach Brown's coaching ability - but it was pretty cool to have a major college coach visit with three high school guys who were being recruited by no one, and were not going to make any contribution to the betterment of his program. He offered us tickets to the game the next night - my father and I went - last row in an end zone upper deck - but still free (back when tickets were harder to come by). This scenario would never happen today - but back then it did. As I remember, Vanderbilt won, and it may have been the game when Brown had his team come back on the floor and practice a little bit after the game, using a basketball that some child was holding after the game.

Memorable from the '91 game was Brown speaking to reporters afterwards and complaining about the bench locations and saying something along the lines of "Vanderbilt is a fine institution and I'm sure they have a wonderful school of architecture, but this is a terrible design."

LOL. No architectural school.

This was followed by a game I still talk about: the ‘92 LSU game when Todd Millholland and a skinny freshman Chris Woods shut down one Mr. Shaquille O’Neal. Going on memory, two points in the first half, ten for the game for Shaq. And we won easily.

I understand Shaq went on to have a fine basketball career, but all I know is that he was winless at Memorial.

VUGear wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:56 pm Memorable from the '91 game was Brown speaking to reporters afterwards and complaining about the bench locations and saying something along the lines of "Vanderbilt is a fine institution and I'm sure they have a wonderful school of architecture, but this is a terrible design."

LOL. No architectural school.

That remarkable presser was followed by Brown and his staff chasing a cameraman from WSMV through the parking deck adjacent to the gym, and then Brown going off on "the media giving Stealth bomber secrets" to the enemy. (This was during the first Gulf War.)

AuricGoldfinger wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:54 am

VUGear wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:56 pm Memorable from the '91 game was Brown speaking to reporters afterwards and complaining about the bench locations and saying something along the lines of "Vanderbilt is a fine institution and I'm sure they have a wonderful school of architecture, but this is a terrible design."

LOL. No architectural school.

That remarkable presser was followed by Brown and his staff chasing a cameraman from WSMV through the parking deck adjacent to the gym, and then Brown going off on "the media giving Stealth bomber secrets" to the enemy. (This was during the first Gulf War.)

Coach Fogler said it best on his TV show one time: "Dale is very gracious when he wins"

VUaskew wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 1:36 pm

AuricGoldfinger wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:54 am

VUGear wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:56 pm Memorable from the '91 game was Brown speaking to reporters afterwards and complaining about the bench locations and saying something along the lines of "Vanderbilt is a fine institution and I'm sure they have a wonderful school of architecture, but this is a terrible design."

LOL. No architectural school.

That remarkable presser was followed by Brown and his staff chasing a cameraman from WSMV through the parking deck adjacent to the gym, and then Brown going off on "the media giving Stealth bomber secrets" to the enemy. (This was during the first Gulf War.)

Coach Fogler said it best on his TV show one time: "Dale is very gracious when he wins"

My alum brother was attending a summer 1991 Vanderbilt alumni gathering in the city where he lived at the time and Fogler was the guest speaker. The conference had just released the '91-'92 SEC schedule, the first one that involved divisions, which required some juggling of the schedule with the addition of two new teams. Fogler was literally giddy at the thought of Dale having to come back to Vandy for a second season in a row, but this time without a return trip to Baton Rouge.