re: Culotta pointing the finger at daddy Dale as Vitale’s source

Dale Brown started in a different era, and he probably would have been fired if his career started when Wade’s did. He had a 9-9 SEC record his first season, though that team overachieved and actually beat two ranked teams (Memphis State and Vanderbilt). He had four losing SEC seasons in a row from 1973-74 through 1976-77, and the rumor was he may have been fired after that season had LSU not won two of three on the road to end the season.

The other thing that bought him time was that half of the league didn’t give a shite about basketball. Alabama, Tennessee and Vanderbilt had good programs in the early to mid 1970s, and, of course, Kentucky. The rest of the league, including LSU, didn’t really have the fan bases that cared. LSU’s fan base really embraced hoops when Pete Maravich was around and then once LSU made its run in the late ‘70s that lasted til the early ‘90s.