Thursday, May 5, 2011

James B. Miller Stadium Dedication on Saturday (May 7th)

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will honor one of its own, naming the baseball facility after James B. Miller at a dedication ceremony Saturday, May 7, 2011. The UW-Whitewater baseball team takes on UW-La Crosse at noon, and the dedication will take place between games of the doubleheader. There will be a tailgate during game two, with food and beverages provided. The tailgate will be located in the Miller Stadium Hawk's Nest (down the right field line).

Miller was the Warhawks’ head baseball coach from 1987 to 2003. He holds the record for victories for a UW-Whitewater baseball coach with a record of 416-226-4, a winning percentage of .648 and an average of 24 wins a year. He was among the top thirty National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III active coaching leaders in both total wins and winning percentage at his retirement in 2003. Miller was a three-time Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year, earning the honor in 1988, 1990, and 2000. He was named the NCAA III Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 1989. In 2000, 2001, and 2003 he directed UW-W to Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, and Miller was named the conference baseball coach of the year each of those years. He led the Warhawks to National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III tournament bids in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2001, and 2003, including a fifth place finish in 1989. He mentored players to first team all-conference honors seventy-eight times, all-region honors fifty times and All-America recognition eleven times. Eleven players coached by Miller signed professional contracts. Miller was respected among his peers, serving on national team rating and All-America committees. He was one of six college coaches in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame when he entered. Miller also was the Warhawks' head basketball coach from 1975 to 1978. A 1965 graduate of UW-Whitewater, Miller taught and coached thirty-four years for the Warhawks and still assists the department with special projects.

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