By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Ron Abernathy, the man behind the man of LSU basketball’s storied history of the 1970s and ’80s under coach Dale Brown who signed Shaquille O’Neal and recruited key members of the Tigers’ 1981 Final Four team hailed as greatest in school history, has died.
Abernathy died at age 75 on Tuesday in Jackson, Tennessee, of cancer. He is survived by his wife Sharon, son Ron Jr. and daughter Charity.
A native of Louisville who was born on Dec. 13, 1950, Abernathy played basketball at and graduated from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. He was one of Brown’s top assistant coaches from 1976-89 – an era that featured the Tigers’ rise to national prominence after bad to average seasons from 1954-55 through 1968-69 before Pistol Pete Maravich’s senior season when LSU (22-10, 13-5 SEC runner-up) and reached the NIT in Madison Square Garden in 1970.
“Ron Abernathy couldn’t have been a nicer guy,” Brown told Tiger Rag from his home in Baton Rouge on Wednesday night. “Just a perpetual smile on his face. He was such a great recruiter for us. He dressed so well. He made me feel like a hobo. The kids loved him and loved playing for him.”
With Brown, who turns 91 on Halloween, taking over before the 1972-73 season and later with Abernathy, LSU reached its first NCAA Tournament since 1954 in 1979 and won the Tigers’ first SEC title since 1954, an Elite Eight and last SEC Tournament title in 1980 and the school’s first Final Four since 1953 in 1981 when the Tigers finished 31-5 overall and 17-1 in the Southeastern Conference. No season has been better since, and 1980-81 is regarded by many as LSU’s greatest season ever, though the 1952-53 Tigers with All-American center Bob Pettit finished 22-3 after winning the SEC at 13-0.
The Tigers won an SEC regular season title in 1985 with Abernathy and Brown and returned to the Final Four in 1986 and to the Elite Eight in 1987. They went to seven straight NCAA Tournaments with players recruited by Abernathy from 1984-90. Brown went three more times for a school record 10 NCAA Tournaments after Abernathy with players he recruited.
Abernathy coached one of LSU’s greatest players in history in forward Rudy Macklin at Shawnee High in Louisville, where Abernathy was 97-11. Brown recruited Macklin away from Louisville coach Denny Crum and brought Abernathy with him to LSU.
Macklin starred for the Tigers from 1976-81, leading the Tigers to the SEC championships with Brown and Abernathy in 1979 and ’81 and that Final Four. Macklin was a three-time first team All-SEC player, the SEC Player of the Year in 1981 and an All-American in 1981.
“I’ll never forget, Ron had just started at Shawnee High as a physical science teacher and coach of the freshman basketball team, and I was in 8th grade,” Macklin said Wednesday night. “I said, ‘Oh, you’re new.'”
But Abernathy already knew Macklin.
“I’m going to be the freshman basketball coach, and you’re going to be my starting center,” Abernathy told him.
Two years later, Abernathy replaced legendary James “Honey Bee” Gordon as head basketball coach.
“The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Nothing’s changed. Go to class. Be at practice on time. And we’re going to run laps,'” Macklin remembers Abernathy saying. “He worked us to death. We ran like crazy.”
When Brown recruited Macklin away from Louisville, Tennessee, UCLA, Maryland and Marquette, he got the commitment from him before he got Abernathy.
“He was a great high school coach,” Brown said. “And I was impressed with him – wanted him to work for me. He was only 25 or 26 at the time.”
Once at LSU, Abernathy recruited forward DeWayne Scales (1977-80 at LSU) from Dallas, sixth man sensation guard Willie Sims (1977-81) from Long Island, New York, point guard Ethan Martin (1977-81) from McKinley High in Baton Rouge and forward Leonard Mitchell (1980-84) from St. Martinville. Abernathy slept in his car outside Mitchell’s home several times, guarding him from other national recruiters.
From 1978-79 through 1980-81 with the above players as well as guard Jordy Hultberg (1976-80) from De La Salle in New Orleans, Howard Carter (1979-83) from Redemptorist in Baton Rouge and center Greg Cook (1976-81) from Newark, New Jersey, LSU had its greatest three-year run in history – 23-6 and 14-4 (Sweet 16, SEC regular season champions) in 1979, 26-6 and 14-4 (Elite Eight, SEC regular season runner-up, SEC Tournament champions) in 1980 and 31-5, 17-1 (Final Four, SEC regular season champions) in 1981.
Abernathy was still coaching just last spring at Humboldt High in Humboldt, Tennessee, near Jackson and reached the Class IA state championship game, finishing 23-7. After the season he retired and returned to Baton Rouge for the 40-year anniversary of the Tigers’ 1986 Final Four team at Drago’s restaurant and reunited with Brown and many of the players from that team.
“I loved my time at LSU,” Abernathy said at the reunion. “We had it going for a lot of years – a lot of great teams with coach Brown.”
After the 1988-89 season, Abernathy left to become head coach at Tennessee State, but not before he helped Brown sign 7-foot-1 center Shaquille O’Neal out of Cole High in San Antonio for the 1989-90 season. O’Neal led LSU to another SEC regular season title in 1991 and three NCAA Tournaments. He dominated the SEC and the nation – Associated Press player of the year in 1991, consensus first team All-American in 1991 and ’92 and two-time SEC player and male athlete of the year in 1991 and ’92.
After two disappointing seasons at Tennessee State in 1989-90 (7-20) and 1990-91 (5-23), Abernathy returned to high school coaching and bounced around before landing at Humboldt High. He was named the 2019 Boys Basketball Coach of the Year at Humboldt after reaching the state championship game that year and finishing 30-4.
“I just love coaching basketball,” Abernathy said at the reunion.
“He did love to coach. He didn’t want to stop coaching,” Macklin said. “But man, we didn’t like it when coach Brown would be off recruiting or speaking, and he left Ron in charge. He worked our butts off. Guys hated it when coach Abernathy would take over practice.”
After one particularly exhausting Abernathy practice, Macklin’s teammates flocked to him.
“You played for that guy in high school? He’s killing us,” one player said.
“They could not believe how tough he was on us,” Macklin said. “He was real particular about details. I can still hear him, ‘Do it again. Run that play again.’ He wouldn’t stop. He made us better players. But I remember one time, coach Brown came back to see us after practice, and we were all just exhausted. And Daddy Dale didn’t leave Ron alone with us again for a long time. He was something else. He just loved coaching.”
Abernathy is the sixth assistant coach of Dale Brown at LSU to pass away – Jack Schalow (1972-74 at LSU) in 2006, Rick Huckabay (1980-83 at LSU) in 2006, Art Tolis (1974-80 at LSU) in 2010, Bob Boyd (1996-97 at LSU) in 2015, Tex Winter (1983-84 at LSU) in 2018 and Ron Abernathy (1976-89 at LSU) on June 23, 2026.
“I’m just really sad,” Brown said. “I’ve lost so many coaches. It’s just the brevity of life.”
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