CLEVELAND—Former South Dakota athletic director Carl Miller will receive the 49th James J. Corbett Memorial Award as announced Wednesday by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). The Corbett Award is the highest honor one can achieve in collegiate athletics administration, awarded annually to an administrator who devoted their life's work to bettering intercollegiate athletics.
"I have always believed that a career in collegiate athletics is a very special one by its very nature," said Miller. "Athletic competition teaches young men and women that teamwork and perseverance are essential to achieving their goals in life. […] I feel greatly honored to be the recipient of the James J. Corbett Memorial Award at NACDA's 50th Anniversary Convention. This organization's history of contributions to athletics and the growth of its membership over the past 50 years is an impressive one."
Miller was a visionary. While serving as South Dakota's athletic director from 1971-76, he conceived the idea of the DakotaDome as an enclosed athletic facility to house all of the athletic programs under one roof and incorporate the physical education department within it. Miller wrote the original plan for the $7.2 million facility on a paper napkin.
"At that time, there were no domes," Miller had said. "The plan was ahead of its time, which is why people thought I was crazy. Thankfully the president of the University, Dick Bowen, thought I was just crazy enough to get it done."
With fundraising spearheaded by Miller, the athletic department raised $2 million for the project.
"It was my privilege to work at South Dakota at the time when the DakotaDome project was developed," said Joe Massa, Bowen's assistant. "Without the vision, enthusiasm and leadership of Carl Miller, this project, which was on the leading edge of physical education and athletic facility development at the time, would simply not have happened."
Miller left before the DakotaDome opened, but his fundraising campaign was one of the most successful in the University's history.
A native of LaCrosse, Wis., Miller's career moved him between four schools in the Dakotas and eventually to becoming the president of NACDA in 1987-88. Miller enjoyed stints in coaching, as the chair of physical education departments and as a director of athletics at Huron College, North Dakota State, South Dakota and North Dakota.
Miller will be honored at the James J. Corbett Awards Luncheon on June 17 in Orlando, Fla., during the 2015 NACDA Convention.
