Year graduated
1976
Major accomplishments
Holds a two-game final four record of 45 rebounds, and a one-game record of 29 rebounds; Indiana All-Star
Brad Miley was not a happy camper when his father moved the family from Speedway to Rushville to take a job in an air conditioning business in the summer of 1975. “I’ll be the first to say that when it happened I was like any 17-year-old kid, I wanted to stay at Speedway, having grown up there,” said Miley, who’s been in the wholesale beverage business with the Olinger Distributing Co. for a little over 20 years, and coaching his two sons in AAU basketball in his free time.
“I wanted to stay with my friends, and with my coach there, Morris Pollard. My dad, of course, which I probably would do the same with my kids, made me go with him. Looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The move not only helped Miley become an Indiana All-Star in 1976, it was instrumental in getting him to his present residence, Terre Haute, where he was a starting forward, and a teammate of Larry Bird during Indiana State’s near-perfect college season of 1978-79. Even though Miley wanted to remain a Speedway Sparkplug rather than become a Rushville Lion in his high school senior season, he soon realized he was walking into a promising situation.
“What was ironic was that Rushville had four kids coming back after losing to Columbus North in the final game of the Indianapolis semistate in 1975” he said. “I was a perfect fit, being 6-foot-8, to fill the middle.”
Miley played with the Goins brothers for coach Larry Angle. Rick Goins also made the Indiana All-Star team in ‘76, and his brother Dennis, who started at point guard as a freshman in the ‘75-’76 season, made the All-Star team in 1979.
“Rick Goins and I made a nice inside-outside tandem,” said Miley. “He was about 6-foot-5 as a guard. We had two 6-foot-4 forwards, so we were a fairly big team.” And talented—the Lions were 25-1 going into the state tournament finals at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
Rushville drew East Chicago Washington in its afternoon game. The Senators went into the finals ranked No. 1, and with a 25-game winning streak. The Lions appeared overmatched early, falling behind, 33-12, at the end of the first quarter, but Miley and mates rallied to win, 68-59, in one of the most memorable games in tournament history. The late IHSAA commissioner, Phil Eskew, exclaimed afterward, “Did you ever in your life see anything like it?” Then he added, “And that rebounding by Miley! Why, that must be a record.”
Miley had a personal best of 29 rebounds, which remains a one-game record for the state tournament finals. “East Chicago never slowed down the game when they had the lead,” he said. “There were rebounds to be had. I also had 17 points, five blocked shots, two steals, and one assist. So I had a very active game.”
In the championship game, which Marion won, 82-76, for a second consecutive title, Miley remembered having 21 rebounds, which would have given him 50 for a two-game record, and 19 points. According to IHSAA records, Miley only had 16 rebounds, giving him 45, which still gave him a two-game record.
The IHSAA takes responsibility for the discrepancy. The 21-rebound total Miley mentioned having in the championship game appeared in the program for the 2005 state tournament. “We went back to the box scores in the 1975-76 yearbook and found it was 16 rebounds, which gave Miley 45 for the day, a two-game record,” said Joe Gentry, IHSAA public relations director.
Miley is understandably proud of breaking the state finals rebound records set by George McGinnis of Indianapolis Washington High in 1969 (27 for one game, 43 for two games), but he is humble about the accomplishment.
“My parents moved to Holland, Michigan, from Rushville, and lived there for years until my dad passed away,” he said. “Mom now lives in Terre Haute, but when she lived in Holland she would call me every March. About the only thing she was concerned about was whether the single-game record still stood. She would say, ‘Did it get broken? Did it get broken?”‘
Those records, plus Rushville’s outstanding 1975-76 season, didn’t escape the recruiters. Miley made visitations to Indiana State, Arkansas and Auburn. His parents wanted him to stay in state so they could watch him play, and he remembers how his visit to ISU convinced him that Birdland was the right choice for him.
“Having met Larry the first time down at campus and playing with him the week I visited I knew right then that’s where I wanted to be,” said Miley. “He was something like you’d never seen before. He was the ultimate team player. You always hear about some players making other players better. He did.”
ISU went 25-3,23-9,33-1, and 16-11 in Miley’s four years. As a freshman, he was sixth man until the final game of the season, an 83-82 loss to Houston and Otis Birdsong in the NIT.
“I’ll never forget, [coach] Bob King said to me, Tf you can hold Otis under 30, we win the game.’ He got 30 on the button, and we lost by one. It was a real experience for me at the time being an 18-year-old kid playing against a senior in college. Then I started my sophomore, junior, and senior years.”
Miley’s forte was defense and rebounding. “That was a perfect fit for our team, and that’s what I did four years. I was playing against the best player in the world at the time is the way I looked at it. I was seeing things in a game, like nothing compared to what I see every day. I said to myself, ‘If I can hold my own against [Bird], there’s a lot of people I can affect.’”
One of Miley’s most significant rebounds came with three seconds left in a game at New Mexico State on February 1, 1979. He took one dribble and passed to Bob Heaton at mid-court. Heaton banked in a 52-foot shot that tied the game, and ISU won in overtime to extend its unbeaten streak to 19-0. The shot earned Heaton the nickname Miracle Man.
“Larry fouled out on the play that gave a New Mexico State player a one-and-one free throw situation,” said Miley. “What was amazing at the time is that I got the rebound, and Bob was wide open. I think that they were thinking the kid who was shooting was an 80-percent foul shooter, and he was gonna make ‘em. They relaxed, so Bob was able to get off a pretty good release with nobody in his face.”
In the Sycamores’ five games in the 1979 NCAA tournament, the last of which ISU lost to Michigan State and Magic Johnson, 75-64, to finish 33-1, Miley was 9-of-10 from the field, O-of-4 from the foul line, scored 18 points and had 20 rebounds. Not great statistics, but still very significant.
“Whether people want to give me credit for it, I think I’m the leading field-goal percentage shooter in Indiana State history [for a season in 1978-79, .630 on 74-of-l 18],” said Miley. “Of course, I never got outside five or six feet of the basket. It was a bonus playing with a guy like Larry, because when he made his moves he would make the right delivery to you. All you had to do was catch it and you probably had a lay-up. So many kids playing the game now don’t understand that one person who makes that sacrifice can be the difference in the game for you.”
After college, Miley played professionally overseas for five seasons; two in Australia and three in Iceland. “I went from the bottom of the world to the top, and had a ball at both locations,” he said. When Miley returned to the U.S., he played with Bill Cook’s traveling team of Bloomington until he was 36.
Miley was a runner-up in two of Indiana’s most famous basketball games, in high school and college. He thinks about it a lot, but says, “I wouldn’t trade my high school and college days for the world.”