Al Miller (soccer)
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Al Miller (born December 17, 1936) is an American former collegiate and professional soccer coach. After leaving coaching, he then became a
general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
for two indoor soccer clubs in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.


Youth

Miller was born in
Lebanon, Pennsylvania Lebanon () is a city in and the county seat of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,814 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in the central part of the Lebanon Valley, east of Harrisburg and west of Reading. ...
and grew up in
Ono, Pennsylvania Ono is an unincorporated community in East Hanover Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States, on U.S. Route 22 and approximately two miles southwest of the junction of Interstate 78 and Interstate 81. The Swatara Creek to the south dra ...
. He attended East Stroudsburg State College where he played on both the soccer and basketball teams. He was a
midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
who earned second team All American recognition in 1958 and 1959.


Coaching


Collegiate

While he starred as a soccer and basketball player, his first job was as the
Albright College Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1856. History Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several ins ...
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
coach. He gained his first soccer coaching position with New Paltz State. He spent five years with the New Paltz, winning three New York Conference Championships. In 1967,
Hartwick College Hartwick College is a private liberal arts college in Oneonta, New York. The institution's origin is rooted in the founding of Hartwick Seminary in 1797 through the will of John Christopher Hartwick. In 1927, the Seminary moved to expand into a ...
hired Miller. In his six seasons at Hartwick, he took the team to a 64-12-3 record and a 1970 Final Four appearance.


NASL

Several events led to Miller moving from the collegiate to the professional coaching ranks. Tom McCloskey, a wealthy
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
businessman was interested in owning a professional sports team. While attending the 1973 Super Bowl,
Lamar Hunt Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and ...
broached the subject of McCloskey starting a North American Soccer League (NASL) franchise in Philly. The NASL awarded McCloskey a team to begin play in the 1973 season. With very little time to prepare, McCloskey, and his
general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
Bob Ehlinger, hired Miller who was both a successful collegiate soccer coach and from the Philadelphia area, as the
Philadelphia Atoms The Philadelphia Atoms were an American soccer team based out of Philadelphia that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL). They played from 1973 to 1976, at Veterans Stadium (1973–75) and Franklin Field (1976). The club's colors wer ...
first coach. Miller decided to build the Atoms around a core of native U.S. players. This was significant in that most NASL teams used U.S. players as goalkeepers or bench warmers. Miller took
Bob Rigby Bob Rigby (born July 3, 1951, in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania) is a retired U.S. soccer goalkeeper. Rigby played twelve seasons in the North American Soccer League, three in the Major Indoor Soccer League, one in the Western Soccer Alliance and ear ...
with the first pick in the 1973 NASL college draft. Rigby went on to become one of the best goalkeepers in the NASL. In the second round, Miller selected Bobby Smith who was selected as a second team All Star his rookie year. Miller then took his team to England to train. While there noticed several players who he thought could help his team. He negotiated an on loan arrangement for
Andy Provan Andrew McKelvie Hughes Provan (born 1 January 1944 in Greenock), also known as Drew Provan, is a Scottish former footballer who played in the Scottish Football League for St Mirren, in the Football League for Barnsley, York City, Chester, W ...
,
Jim Fryatt James Fryatt (2 September 1940 – 5 June 2020) was an English footballer who played as a striker. During his playing career he was nicknamed ''Pancho''. Football League A regular scorer for all of his club sides, the stockily built forward w ...
and
Chris Dunleavy Chris Dunleavy (born 30 December 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played for Everton, Southport, Philadelphia Atoms, Chester, Halifax Town and Wollongong FC. Dunleavy was voted Chester's player of the year for 1973–7 ...
. The selection of Miller proved to be a significant advantage for the Atoms. His decision to use U.S. players made the team immediately popular in Philadelphia. Miller was also personable became media darling. Besides creating a team popular with the fans, Miller also created a talented team which ran to a 9-2-8 record and a spot in the playoffs. In the semifinals, the Atoms crushed the
Toronto Metros Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor ...
3–0, then easily handled the Dallas Tornado 2–0, to take the 1973 NASL title. (Miller was named NASL Coach of the Year, the only US-born manager to win that award in the league's 17-year history.) Miller continued his contributions to U.S. soccer when he brought Francisco Marcos into the Atoms. Marcos had played at Hartwick when Miller coached there and Miller now gave Marcos his first taste in soccer management, a skill he would develop over years in the NASL, then as the founder of the
United Soccer Leagues United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
. In 1974, McCloskey promoted Miller to general manager, a position he held in addition to his coaching duties. In 1975, he drafted
Chris Bahr Christopher Kurt Bahr (born February 3, 1953) is a former professional American football and soccer player. He was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) and played midfielder in the North American Soccer League. High school Atte ...
who became the 1975 NASL Rookie of the Year and later became a standout
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placekicker. Miller was unable to replicate his 1974 success and the team slowly became a drain on McCloskey's finances. In 1975, he sold the team to a Mexican group. With the change in ownership, Miller elected to move to the Dallas Tornado. He spent the 1976 through 1980 season with the Tornado, gaining the playoff semifinals in 1980. After Dallas lost that semifinal match with the
New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...
, Miller announced his resignation as coach in the locker room. While with Dallas, Miller had a hand in giving another significant individual his start when he drafted
Glenn Myernick Glenn "Mooch" Myernick (December 29, 1954 in Trenton, New Jersey – October 9, 2006 in Thornton, Colorado) was an American soccer player and coach. He won the 1976 Hermann Trophy as that year’s outstanding collegiate player. He then spent eig ...
with the first pick of the 1976 College Draft. He then moved to the
Calgary Boomers The Calgary Boomers were a Canadian soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) for the 1980–81 Indoor and 1981 outdoor seasons. The team was based in Calgary and played their home games at Stampede Corral during t ...
, taking them into the playoffs in 1981. The Boomers folded at the end of the season and Miller found himself without a team until hired by the
Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...
during the 1982 season. During the winter he guided the Rowdies to their third
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title in
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. In doing so he joined
Eddie Firmani Edwin Ronald "Eddie" Firmani (; born 7 August 1933) is a former professional football player and manager. A former forward, he spent most of his career in Italy and England. Born in South Africa, he represented the Italy national team internat ...
and Ron Newman as the only coaches to win NASL titles in both the outdoor league and the indoor variant. His indoor success with the Rowdies did not translate outdoors however, as the team finished 7-23. He resigned on October 5, 1983, after disagreements with the team's management.
/sup>


National team

When
Dettmar Cramer Dettmar Cramer (4 April 1925 – 17 September 2015) was a German football player and coach who led Bayern Munich to the 1975 and 1976 European Cups. He was born in Dortmund. Cramer is commonly considered to be the father of modern football in J ...
, the first-ever full-time head coach of the U.S. national team, quit in 1975, he was replaced by Miller on an interim basis. Miller's tenure was brief, only two matches: in a home-and-home series of friendlies against
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, the U.S. was crushed 7–0 in Poznan and 4–0 in
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. Manfred Schellscheidt, one of Miller's players on the Atoms, took over the job that summer.


General Manager

After leaving the
Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...
, Miller never again coached a professional team. Instead he entered team management with the Cleveland Force of Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). He oversaw the Force from 1984 until it folded at the end of the 1987–1988 season. He then moved on to become the general manager of the
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for a year. On February 22, 1989, Cleveland was awarded a new MISL franchise, the
Cleveland Crunch The Cleveland Crunch are an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio competing in as a charter member of the Major League Indoor Soccer (MLIS). The rebranded Crunch returned to indoor play as a member of the MASL 2 i ...
.
The Crunch hired Miller as its general manager, a position he held for the next ten years. In July 1992, the MISL folded and the Crunch moved to the National Professional Soccer League (1984-2001), National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). In Miller's ten years, the Crunch won three championships (1994 over St. Louis; 1996 over Kansas City; 1999 over Milwaukee) and lost another three title series (1991 to San Diego; 1993 and 1997, both to Kansas City).


Media

ESPN later signed Miller as a color commentator on ESPN's Mundial Sports. He also has narrated a series of films on soccer and wrote a chapter in the book Winning Soccer. East Stroudsburg State College inducted Miller into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.
/sup> Hartwick college inducted Miller into its Hall of Fame in 1995.
/sup> That same year, Miller was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. In 2008, Miller was inducted into the New Paltz Hall of Fame along with the 1965 Men's championship soccer team. Miller made news headlines again in 2012 at the age of 75, when he survived an alligator attack while playing golf with two friends at the Lake Ashton Golf Course in Lake Wales, Florida.


References


External links


Hartwick college stats


{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Al 1936 births Living people People from Lebanon, Pennsylvania American men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders East Stroudsburg Warriors men's soccer players American soccer coaches Hartwick Hawks men's soccer coaches United States men's national soccer team managers Tampa Bay Rowdies coaches North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches United States Soccer Federation officials National Soccer Hall of Fame members North American Soccer League (1968–1984) commentators