Dale Brown

My Story of Being a Dale Brown “orphan” I wrote a book called, Excuse Me, Can I Help You Get to Heaven?" I finished it in May of 2025. It was finalized and sent to the printers in November, and I received 500 copies of it right before Christmas that year. Most, if not, all people would be so excited to actually see their work in print. I wasn't. I was marred in deep depression. The books remained in the boxes in my garage. Then came Friday, January 2, the day after New Years 2026. I received a phone call that afternoon. When I answered, the caller said "Is this Jeffrey Miller?" "Yes, it is" "Well, this is Coach Dale Brown" "Yeah right." "No this is Dale Brown." "Who is playing a joke on me?" "I read your book," "Now I know someone is messing with me because I have all the copies of my book and It's not in any store nor online." "Is Chris Warner your publisher and didn't you send him a few copies of your book?" Holy crap!! This is Dale Brown. "OK coach, how can I help you?" "I read your book twice. I've never read a book twice; in fact, I am planning on reading it again tonight. I am going to write down my notes on it as well. Your book has touched me more than any other book I have ever read." "Coach I'm just someone who wrote a book on my life. I'm nobody." "You are wrong. You are somebody. You wrote a great book, and I would like 3 more signed copies to send to Bob Costas, Tim Brando, and Trent Angers. Also, I don't know you nor have ever met you so why would I tell you these things if they are not true?" Coach Brown and I continued to speak for close to 1 hour. We talked about my book, and we talked about LSU basketball, which I grew up watching in the eighties and nineties. He told me how he was raised by his mom who worked 3 jobs to make ends meet in North Dakota. How he grew up in the Great Depression was very poor. We talked about the 1987 NCAA tournament Final 8 game vs Indiana and how I was 55 years old, and I still hadn't gotten over that game. He told me how Bobby Knight called him and apologized to him for being an A-hole to him. After we hung up, I tried to understand what had just happened? Apparently, I had just talked to legendary coach Dale Brown for an hour because he read a book, I wrote that I thought was garbage. Then I realized something. I could actually focus on something besides my depression which was about 7-8 months long. The clouds had departed in my mind, and the sun was shining. I felt alive for the first time since I attempted suicide the past June, which I told Coach Brown about. What happened over the next few weeks will show you the selflessness and compassion of Coach Brown. Coach began to call me, or email me, or text me to ask only one thing. How are you doing? One call I will never forget is when I answered the phone and he said this, "Jeff Jeff he's, ourman. I f he can't do it no one, especially me, can. I mean who does that?? He never met me. I wasn't one of his players. I was just a regular guy. Yet he reached out to me numerous times to make sure that I was ok. I mean if Coach Dale Brown did that for me, can you imagine how many thousands of other people he did that for? I never met anyone close to who Coach Brown was. And I consider myself to be a very deep faith-oriented Christian, so I would have met many people in my faith journey along the way. He gave my son and I his seats for the LSU/Georgia game last year. Although over the phone, I met one of my young adult idols, Bob Costas. I was able to discover the other side of sports that nearly every sports fan never gets a chance to. Coach Dale Brown did that for me, which if you knew me how big of a deal that was. He was the big spark that allowed me to get out of my depression. And for those who have battled with depression know how big of a deal that is. I can't even, nor do I want to know if Coach Brown hadn't called me that day where I would be today. Rudy Macklin wrote about Dale's orphans. The people who were not his players but who he reached out anyway to help them. I'm one of Dale's orphans. I was lost in the darkness of depression when he reached out to me and literally brought the light back into my life. After speaking to Dale that day, I went home and opened those boxes of my books and started distributing them. I became a better husband and father to my family. I began writing again, which is a clear sign that I'm not battling depression. Dale received everything that I wrote, and he was always very appreciative. I never met Coach Brown in person and only knew him for not even 10 months, yet he remains the most inspirational and influential person I have ever met in 56 years. How is that possible? I can't explain it. I literally don't have the words to describe it. All I can say is that only the people who knew Coach Brown can understand that.