Al Miller is named Chyzowych Lifetime Achievement Award recipient

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Dec 24, 2018

Al Miller, of the of most influential American coaches of the last 50 years, will receive the Walt Chyzowych Lifetime Achievement Award Jan. 12 in ceremonies during the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Chicago.

Like the late Chyzowych, a Ukrainian immigrant who starred at Temple and for Philadelphia pro teams, Miller came out of Pennsylvania and was a college star in the late 1950s, earning second-team All-America recognition at East Stroudsburg State in 1958 and 1959.

Miller is best remembered as the head coach of the 1973 Philadelphia Atoms, who won the NASL title in their first season.

But before that, Miller was the head coach at Hartwick College for six seasons, helping build the small upstate New York school into a national powerhouse and coaching the likes of Timo Liekoski, Francisco Marcos and Terry Fisher. He later coached the Dallas Tornado, Calgary Boomers and Tampa Bay Rowdies in the NASL and then served as the Cleveland Force's general manager in the MISL and NPSL.

Miller, who coached the U.S. national team in 1975 and served as national team general manager in 1988, was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1995.