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Sorry to hear this news
Published: 4/29/2011 10:51 PM
Last Modified: 4/29/2011 10:54 PM

I should have written this before today, but the news was so terrible that, subconsciously, I probably chose to postpone broaching the subject.

Ann Browne, 54-year-old sister of LSU and former Oklahoma State football coach Les Miles, died in a car accident last week.

I interviewed Miles’ friends and family members for a profile article in 2001. Browne expressed great admiration for her brother and told stories that instantly convinced me he was made of the right stuff.

An excerpt:

When Les was (a young adult), he became the guardian his little sister both loved and dreaded. Ann had crushes on Les’ friends, but all of them knew they were in serious trouble if they wronged her.

Those same friends inherited the role of protector after Les went to college. Once, when an altercation broke out at a dance, she was yanked by the collar off the dance floor by a boy she did not recognize. Said the boy, “Your brother wouldn’t want you that close to this situation.”

Ann said she wished she had a son like Les to safeguard her children.

“He looked out for people who couldn’t look out for themselves,” she said. “It sounds kind of hokey, but he believes in the power of right.”

During the same interview, Ann said Les took ballet lessons as a kid because he thought it would make him a better football player. She was excited when the ballet dancer-turned-coach got his first head coaching job at OSU.

“He’s living his dream right now, if you haven’t figured that out,” she said. “Our family is so happy for him. It’s just a very thrilling thing for me to see him live his dream and do something he set out to do. I’m sure he’s working 6 a.m. to midnight and doesn’t consider it work because, to him, it’s a blast.”

My guess is Miles’ parents raised great kids. It bothers me that he lost his sister.



Reader Comments 2 Total
Filmmaker (last year)
Thank you for sharing this, Jimmie.
120961 (last year)
Well done sir.
2 comments displayed


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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