Longtime New Hanover High School football Coach Joe Miller spent some 36 years in New Hanover County, serving as coach and athletic director and later as the county athletic director before retiring in 2009.
A member of the Greater Wilmington Hall of Fame, Miller established himself as a coaching legend here in the Cape Fear region and his brother John is a basketball coaching icon in the Western Pennsylvania town of Beaver Falls.
Both men are retired, but the family coaching legacy is continuing as John’s sons –and Joe’s nephews–Sean Miller (Arizona University) and Ryan “Archie” Miller (Dayton University) both have their respective college basketball teams in the NCAA Sweet 16–the first time ever that two brothers are coaching in the Sweet 16–along with the Miller brothers’ cousin John Calipari at the University of Kentucky .
“It’s a shining time for the Miller family,” Joe Miller said. “Everybody in the family are basketball guys except me. I’m the football guy. There is a lot of pride in what Sean and Archie are accomplishing. They are self-made young men who have worked extremely hard to get to where they are today.”
The coaching string began with Joe and John–sons of a Western Pennsylvania steel worker and contractor.
“All of us growing up back then had a love for sports,” Joe said. “We all played everything.”
Joe Miller’s 30-year coaching career started with stops in Georgia, Florida, and at Missouri Southern University. He came to Wilmington in 1974.
“There was a coaching change where I was and I heard about a job in Wilmington,” Joe said. “My initial response was, ‘Where the heck is Wilmington, North Carolina?’ I figured I’d come here and stay for a year or two at the most until I could find another college coaching position, it just didn’t quite work out that way.”The rest–as the old cliché goes–is history. Joe won his first state championship in 1975 as the coach of the Lady Wildcats’ softball team, and won a state championship in football in 1983.
Overall, 18 of his 22 football squads were either first or second in the Mideastern 4A Conference, advancing to the state playoffs, with nine of those teams winning conference crowns. In 1991, his team was the fourth-ranked football team in he nation, according to USA Today, and they were ranked 11th in 1992.
Miller was named Mideastern Conference Coach of the Year nine times, and in 1987 was the Region II Coach of the year. In 1994 he became the New Hanover County Athletic Director, retiring in 2009.
John Miller’s resume began on the hardwood at Blackhawk High School in Beaver Falls (Pa.)–mostly famous as the home of former NFL quarterbacks Joe Namath (N.Y. Jets) and Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins), both in the National Football League Hall of Fame.
John Miller’s teams won more than 630 games in his 30 years at Blackhawk High School, capturing eight WIPL title and four state championships. Miller’s Cougar teams hold the record for Western Pennsylvania’s longest section winning streak at 111 victories. Although he is retired from the sideline, he is a member of three different halls of fame, maintains an intense passion for the game of basketball and works with young players in the Drill for Skill organization.
He also trained his three of his children–Sean, Archie and Lisa–to become Division I college basketball stars. In addition, he is credited with grooming his cousin, John Calipari, for success at the highest level.
And now the family coaching legend continues with Sean and Archie at Arizona and Dayton, respectively.
As a player at the University of Pittsburgh, Sean Miller participated in three NCAA tournaments (1988, 1989 and 1991). At Pittsburgh, Sean is the 18th ranked scorer in history with 1,282 points. Sean also ranks 10th on the NCAA Division I free-throw shooting chart at .885 and stands third in the Big East’s career assists list.
Sean was an assistant coach one year (1995) at Miami and coached three years as Xavier’s associate head coach (2002-04). He became the head coach at Xavier in 2004 and stayed there through 2009. His 120-47 record at Xavier ranks him third on the school’s all-time coaching list behind Pete Gillen and the late Skip Prosser. Miller’s 30-7 record in 2007-08 set Xavier record for a season and helped him attain A-10 coach of the year honors.
Sean Miller had a 48-28 record entering the season and this year’s team is now 32-4. Conincidentally, Sean served his three years as an assistant under current Ohio State coach Thad Motta. Archie Miller’s Dayton team upset the Buckeyes 60-59 in the opening round of the tournament.
Archie Miller is regarded as one of the game’s brightest young coaches, leading the Dayton Flyers to 34 wins in his first two seasons. Archie came to Dayton from Arizona in 2011, where he served as Associate Head Coach under his brother. Prior to his two years at Arizona, he was at Ohio State for two seasons.
Archie was a four-year letter winner at North Carolina State (1998-2002). A point guard with an excellent shooting touch, he is third in Wolfpack history in career free-throw percentage (.846, 165-for-195), fourth in career threes (216), and sixth in career 3-point field goal percentage (.429, 219-for-509) when his career ended. His junior numbers of .575 (59-for-102) from three-point range are the second-best, single-season mark in Wolfpack history.
This year’s team, as it heads into Thursday’s matchup with Stanford, is 25-10.
“I think, with Sean, his being in the Sweet 16 is a bit more expected, and I think there is a little more pressure on him,” John Miller said. “Archie is trying to get the program going and it’s pretty amazing for them to be where they are in year three.”
Calipari is one of only two coaches to lead three different schools (UMass-1996, Memphis-2008, and Kentucky-201 & 2012) to a Final Four.
Calipari lettered two years at UNC-Wilmington before transferring to Clarion State. He played point guard at Clarion in 1981 and 1982, leading the team in assists and free-throw shooting percentage. The Eagles were ranked in the Division II Top 20 both years and participated in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Calipari began his coaching career as an assistant at Kansas, and was an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1999, and is in his fifth year as the Wildcats’ coach. The Wildcats won the 2012 NCAA Division I title.
“John was a young kid when he was here at UNCW and I think he got homesick and transferred to Clarion,” Joe Miller remembered. “Basically he grew up in our house in Beaver Falls.”
According to Joe Miller, Calipari donated $25,000 to help with the construction of Wilmington’s Miracle Field.
Dayton faces Stanford on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. in the Sweet 16’s South Region, Arizona will take on San Diego State on the same day at 10:17 p.m. in the West Region, and Kentucky has a tough matchup against Louisville on Friday at 9:45 p.m. in the Midwest Region.
Should the basketball Gods allow, Arizona and Kentucky could face each other in the Final Four. Dayton would need to make it to the championship game for a matchup with either Sean or Calipari. But for now the family is enjoying the ride.
“There certainly is a lot of pride right now in the family,” John Miller said. “These guys are self-made men, and I am really happy and excited for all of them. Everybody at Dayton went crazy when they beat Ohio State, and my phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s an exciting time for the Millers.”
