Ralph Miller
- For other uses, see: Ralph Miller (disambiguation).
Ralph H. Miller (March 9, 1919 – May 15, 2001) was a college men's basketball coach. The Chanute, Kansas native coached at Wichita State University (1951-1964), University of Iowa (1964-1970) and Oregon State University (1970-1989), compiling a 657-382 (.632) overall record in 38 seasons combined. He was enshrined to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on May 3, 1988.
Early Life
Ralph "Cappy" Miller was born in Chanute, Kansas. During High School, Ralph set the state record in the low hurdles in 1937. He was all-state three consecutive years in football and basketball. By 1940, he was beating '32 gold medalist Jim Baush in seven of 10 events in the decathlon. While attending Kansas University, Ralph was an all conference basketball player and a standout football player. In the Fall on 1937 he took a psychology class while at Kansas and met a woman named Emily Jean Milam. They were married five years later. The year before they said their vows, Miller was asked in a pinch to coach boys basketball at Mount Oread High School in Lawrence. The team consisted primarily of professors' sons. During World War 2, Miller enlisted in the Air Force and held desk jobs in Florida, Texas and California. After the war was over, Miller became an assistant director of recreation and oversaw a swimming pool and playground in Redlands, California. In 1949 a friend of Millers called him and offered him a head coaching job at East High School in Kansas. In three years at East High, Miller's teams finished second, third and first in the state using his system of execution and pressure basketball. In 1951, the president of Wichita State University offered him a job as Head Coach.
College Coach
Wichita State
Miller spent 13 years at Wichita State, winning 220 games, earning three National Invitation Tournament berths and a spot in the NCAA Tournament in 1964. During his 13-year stint at WSU, Ralph Miller became the winningest coach in Shocker basketball history. In the spring of 1964 Miller left Wichita State University to become the head coach at the University of Iowa.
Iowa
In the 6 seasons Miller coached at Iowa he won 95 games and lost only 51 games for a winning percentage of (.651). The Hawkeyes averaged more than 100 points a game in 1970 and went undefeated in the Big Ten Conference en route to an NCAA Tournament berth. However, the weather in Iowa in 1970 forced Ralph to consider a state with a more moderate climate. This led him to take his family from Iowa and take the head coaching job at Oregon State University.
Oregon State
Legacy
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Miller, Ralph, and Bud Withers. 1990. Ralph Miller— Spanning the Game. Champaign, Ill: Sagamore. ISBN 0585046824
- White, K.J. 1997. Miller's time : a legacy of OSU basketball, 1971-1989. Highland Times Press.ISBN 188880307X
External Links
- Seidler, Steve. 2006. Observations of Ralph Miller's Pressure Basketball Pressurebasketball.com. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
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