John Brady

Sport: Basketball

Induction Year: 2026

University: Belhaven

Brady became the third LSU men’s basketball coach to lead the Tigers to the Final Four when they stormed through the 2006 NCAA Tournament to reach the national semifinals in Indianapolis.

A former Louisiana high school coach, he also was a head coach on the collegiate level at Samford and Arkansas State. He coached 25 seasons at the college level and had a record of 402-325 (.538) before retiring following the 2016 season.

Brady had his most success at LSU, where, in 10-plus seasons, he was 192-139 (.580). He took a program that had been hit with NCAA probation and suffered scholarship reductions prior to his arrival and led the Tigers to four NCAA Tournament and two NIT berths. Brady won two SEC regular-season titles (2000, 2006) and the SEC West in 2005 after leading Samford to back-to-back conference titles (1996-97). He later won Sun Belt regular-season crowns at Arkansas State (2011, 2013). His third LSU team in 2000 went 28-6, the second-most wins in a season at the school, and he reached the Sweet 16.

His 2006 team, which included an all-Louisiana starting five plus sixth man, went 27-9 and claimed LSU’s first SEC regular-season title in 21 years. The fourth-seeded Tigers’ march to the Final Four included upsets of top-seeded Duke (62-54) and No. 2 seed Texas (70-60, OT) before Brady’s team fell to UCLA 59-45 in the national semis…Born 9-17-1954 in McComb, Miss.