Former Tampa Head Coach Jay Miller to be Inducted in Tampa Bay Soccer Hall of Fame
TAMPA, Fla. - Former University of Tampa men's soccer coach Jay Miller, who guided the Spartans to the NCAA Division II national championship in 1981, was selected for the Tampa Bay Soccer Hall of Fame's inaugural 11-person induction class that will be honored next month in Tampa.
The TBSHOF's induction dinner is Thursday, Aug. 14 (5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.) at Higgins Hall, 5225 N. Himes Ave., on the campus of Tampa's St. Lawrence Catholic Church.
The event is open to the public. Individual tickets are $90. Tables of eight are available for $1,000 (including prime location, table signage and program/video recognition). Additionally, there's a chance to join the organization's ground floor through a membership in the Founders Club for ($250 annually, $1,500 lifetime). For more information, call (813) 467-6916 or log onto TampaBaySoccerHallOfFame.org.
Miller, who was UT's head coach from 1978-87, dropped to his knees after the Spartans vanquished Cal State-Los Angeles 1-0 on Peter Johansson's 30-yard free-kick blast two minutes into overtime in the national-title game. Miller's players spilled onto the frozen field at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., as UT's celebration raged on.
When Miller arrived at UT in 1978, the athletic program was struggling and hampered by red ink. Miller proclaimed that UT men's soccer would win a national title within five years.
The Spartans did it in four.
Miller's Spartans also reached the national-title game in 1983.
"Coach Miller was just a legend and he made everyone better because he knew how to push the right buttons,'' said former Spartan Keith Fulk, a player in 1981 and later a UT assistant coach. "The personalities on our team were incredible. We had guys with long hair, laid-back attitudes, but they were killers on the field. Jay molded us all together.''
After leaving UT, Miller helped the University of South Bulls to three conference championships (Sun Belt in 1988 and 1990, Metro in 1991). He has since worked with the United States Soccer Federation as a national coaching coordinator, while also overseeing several U.S. national teams.
The TBSHOF's induction class includes six household-name pioneers from the Rowdies' glorious era in the North American Soccer League, three legendary head coaches, a longtime referee and a journalist who helped to promote the game at an unprecedented level.
Rowdies icons Mike Connell, Derek Smethurst and Steve Wegerle will be inducted, along with Coach Eddie Firmani, team executive Francisco Marcos and team owner George Strawbridge.
Other inductees include Coach Jim DiNobile, who guided two national-championship youth teams and Eckerd College's program; Coach Vicky King, a state champion and four-decade active leader of the Land O'Lakes High School girls program; Mike Mekelburg, a U.S. Soccer National Assignor and former referee; and Jim Henderson, a longtime journalist who began a versatile career in soccer by covering the colorful exploits of the early Rowdies as the Tampa Tribune's beat writer.