Nov. 2, 2017
SAN DIEGO -- Former San Diego State athletic director Fred Miller passed away at his home in Oregon on Oct. 22. He was 86.
Miller guided the SDSU athletic department from 1985-95 after serving as athletic director at Long Beach State (1967-71) and Arizona State (1971-80).
Among his lasting accomplishments on Montezuma Mesa was his role in 1988 to persuade SDSU students to vote to increase their own yearly activities fees to fund construction for a $30 million Student Activity Center that would eventually become Viejas Arena.
Two years earlier in the spring of 1986, Miller announced the receipt of a $500,000 donation from Dennis and Joan Wise, which marked the first half-million dollar gift to the University.
In addition, Miller was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), which brought together schools from various conferences in select Olympic sports to provide a competitive coalition and conserve travel funds.
Miller also initiated one of college athletics' first corporate sponsorship programs to fund scholarships for all of SDSU's varsity sports at the time.
Miller was raised in Venice, California, and attended the College of the Pacific, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1953. While on the Stockton campus, Miller earned varsity letters in football, track, tennis and rugby.
After serving a stint in Korea with the Navy in 1954 and 1955, Miller played professional football with the Washington Redskins of the NFL and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.
Miller received his master's degree from the University of Southern California in 1959 and his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1963. Later that year, he became an assistant athletic director at Long Beach State, where he was promoted to director in 1967. He also helped found the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now Big West) and steered LBSU's move from the college to university division.
Following his tenure in Long Beach, Miller moved to the Grand Canyon State, transforming Arizona State into one of the strongest programs in collegiate athletics. He introduced 10 women's sports to ASU and helped the Sun Devils expand their football stadium seating capacity from 30,000 to 70,000. He also raised the funds and oversaw the construction of an 8,000-seat baseball stadium, a 5,000-seat track and a 2,000-seat tennis center.
In 1981, Miller became a professor at Arizona State while serving as a consultant for ESPN. He was also a past president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and was an influential member of several NCAA committees.
While at SDSU, Miller served on the NCAA's TV Committee, Committee on Committees and the Volleyball Tournament and Rules Committee. Additionally, he chaired the NCAA Medical Aspects of Sports and Competitive Safeguards as well as the NCAA High School All-Star Committee.
Miller was also responsible for scheduling several top programs on the Aztecs' football schedule, including Miami, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Cal, Illinois and Arizona State.
In 2007, Miller was presented with the NACDA Corbett Award, the highest honor bestowed to a collegiate athletics administrator.
Miller was inducted into the Aztec Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010 and has earned similar distinction at Long Beach State and Arizona State.
Prior to its men's basketball exhibition game against UC San Diego on Thursday, San Diego State will recognize Miller's passing with a moment of silence.