Larry Miller obit

Tar Heel Hoops Legend Larry Miller Dies At Age 79

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Larry Miller was a two-time ACC Player of the Year, two-time ACC Tournament MVP and one of Dean Smith's first star players.

Larry Miller, a two-time ACC Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP and a 2022 inductee in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, died Sunday at age 79 in Bethlehem, Pa.

A native of Catasauqua, Pa., Miller starred at small forward on Dean Smith's first two ACC championship and Final Four teams in 1967 and 1968, earning first-team All-America honors in both seasons. As a senior in 1968, he was a consensus first-team All-America on one of the greatest five-man squads ever honored, joining UCLA's Lew Alcindor, Houston's Elvin Hayes, LSU's Pete Maravich and Louisville's Wes Unseld.

Miller is one of three players ever to win ACC Player-of-the-Year and Tournament MVP honors in consecutive seasons and is the only Tar Heel to win ACC Player of the Year twice. He was also the ACC Male Athlete of the Year in 1968.

He scored in double figures in 64 consecutive games, which remains the UNC record. Miller scored 1,982 points in three seasons and averaged 21.8 per game, the fifth-highest by a Tar Heel.

In one of his most memorable performances, he scored 32 points on 13 of 14 shooting from the floor in an 82-73 victory over Duke in the 1967 ACC championship game.

Led by Miller, Carolina went 70-21, including 32-10 in ACC regular-season play, from 1965-68. The Associated Press ranked the Tar Heels No. 4 in the final polls in his last two seasons, the first time Carolina was ranked in the top 10 in the final poll in consecutive seasons.

Miller played seven years in the ABA and set the league's all-time single-game record with 67 points.

Miller was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team in 2002, as one of the 50 greatest players in Atlantic Coast Conference history.

An All-American star of his Catasauqua High School team during the 1960s, he went on to play college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, earning ACC Player of the Year honors in 1966 and 1967.

From 1968 to 1975, he played professionally in the American Basketball Association as a member of the Los Angeles Stars, Carolina Cougars, San Diego Conquistadors, Virginia Squires, and Utah Stars.

Miller was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on April 4, 1946. Miller grew up to become an All-American star of his Catasauqua High School basketball team, scoring forty-six of his team's sixty-six points and grabbing twenty rebounds during his team's 66–62 win over Steelton High in the 1964 Pennsylvania state playoffs at the Hershey Arena. In 1964, he was the number one college recruit in the country coming out of high school. Miller's scholastic average was 90, and he averaged 33.6 points per game on the basketball team. He received 120 college scholarship offers.

As of 2024, he is the top scorer in Lehigh Valley history, with 2,722 points from 1960-64; over 500 points more than the second ranked scorer.

In 2018, he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) District XI Hall of Fame.

A 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) guard/forward, Miller's final choice of where to attend college was between Michigan State, and two Atlantic Coast Conference teams: a rebuilding University of North Carolina Tar Heel program under coach Dean Smith, and Duke University under coach Vic Bubas. Duke had reached the NCAA championship game in 1964. Bubas had impressed Miller by calling Miller from Kansas City, just before Duke was about to play UCLA for the NCAA title. Miller later turned down a visit to national champion UCLA to instead visit North Carolina a second time. On Miller's visits, it was the attention North Carolina player Billy Cunningham and other Tar Hell players gave Miller that helped sway him toward choosing North Carolina, where Miller played varsity basketball from 1965-68.

In 2022, Miller was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. His Hall of Fame class included fellow Pennsylvania high school standout Richard "Rip" Hamilton.

Miller was drafted in 1968 by the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers (fifth round, 62nd overall pick), but never played in that league.