Maryland Record Breakers: Tom McMillen

From a young age it seemed Tom McMillen was destined for greatness. 

Appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the most sought after recruit in the nation, he would be the crown jewel of Hall of Fame head coach Lefty Driesell’s early years in College Park.

But McMillen was so much more than a basketball player, as he would prove across his four years at Maryland and through his professional career.

Here’s just a sampling of McMillen’s accomplishments:

• Rhodes Scholar recipient (the first in University of Maryland history, and only the second to-date)
• 3x All-American
• 1972 Olympic Silver medalist (lost the controversial gold medal game to the Soviet Union)
• 9th overall selection in the 1974 NBA Draft
• 11-year NBA career
• United States Congressman (1987-93)
• Entrepreneur
• President/CEO of Lead1 Association (current)

Again, just a sampling!

But since we are here to talk about men’s basketball, let’s examine how truly special McMillen was as a basketball player during his time at Maryland.

Before his arrival on campus, the Terps already had an inside edge on the top recruit in the country. McMillen’s older brother, Jay, starred for Maryland from 1964-67 and finished as the program’s second leading scorer averaging 17.3 points/g.

Even still, McMillen was originally committed to play for North Carolina. Luckily for Maryland, he reconsidered and changed course on the final day of registration.

“The real reason was I liked Lefty, I liked Maryland, I liked coming to a program and building something, in addition to the fact that my father was sick and he wanted to see me play,” he said. “My father saw me play all my college years and he passed away my senior year. Ultimately, it was a familial reason that led me and pushed me back to Maryland.”

But before he could play in the varsity lineup, McMillen and sidekick Len Elmore were forced to patiently bide their time on the freshman team due to NCAA rules. So, they made the most of it by dominating the rest of the country. Literally.

Maryland’s freshman team went undefeated that year, earning a number one ranking as McMillen averaged 29.3 points/g.

“We would play the varsity team and beat them,” recalled McMillen on the Hear The Turtle podcast. “When we played at Cole, oftentimes our games were sold out and people would come to the game and then leave. They didn’t even stay around for the varsity game.”

Soon enough, McMillen was able to showcase his talents at the varsity level. And what a career he had, finishing as Maryland’s all-time leading scorer.

More than 45 years later, the Mansfield, Pa., native still holds a number of records for the Terrapins. Those records include career scoring average (20.5 pts/g), 20-point games (48), consecutive games with double-figures (74) and career double-doubles (46).

McMillen has since been surpassed as the program’s all-time leading scorer (he sits 9th), due in large part to the fact he only played 88 games. Consider the career games of the top-5 scorers for context: Dixon (141), Vasquez (136), Bias (131), King (118), Branch (123).

It’s easy to see why many consider McMillen the program’s all-time leading scorer. Joe Smith (20.2 pts/g) is the only other player in program history to average more than 19 points/g.

“Records are meant to be broken,” McMillen said. “It takes nothing away from Juan or any of the current players, it just shows one of the problems in comparing historical records to current results. It’s truly apples to oranges.”

In addition to being part of the U.S. Olympic team that lost to the Soviets in the controversial 1972 gold medal game, McMillen’s Maryland career is probably most noted for his role in what is considered one of the greatest games of all time: the 1974 ACC Championship game against No. 1 NC State.

At that time only conference champions and independents were granted entry into the 25-team NCAA Tournament. 

“This was a game between the two best teams in America,” said NC State head coach Norm Sloan to the Washington Post after the game.

Sadly, the result didn’t favor the Terrapins, which lost to NC State in overtime, 103-100, as McMillen scored 22 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

“It was frustrating,” McMillen said. “We were as good as any team and playing very well. I think we shot 60-percent in that game. A couple breaks here and there and we could have won.”

NC State would go on to win the NCAA Championship, while Maryland would earn the distinction as the greatest team never to make the NCAA Tournament. That summer, the tournament field was expanded to 32 teams.

McMillen looks back fondly on his time playing for the affable Driesell, as he had a front row seat to the legendary coach’s early days building the program and installing genius marketing tactics like the Midnight Mile.

“He truly was a marketing genius,” McMillen said. “He re-framed Cole Field House. He brought the seats down and made it into a real basketball arena. When you talk about sports at the time and Washington it was Lefty Driesell, it was Ted Williams, it was George Allen. I mean he was a legend in this town because he really put basketball on the map in Washington, DC.”

More from McMillen:

On serving as a U.S. Congressman:
“The irony of that is the other record I have is when I was playing for the Washington Bullets, at the time I was running for congress during my last season and I was a candidate while I was still in the NBA. No one has ever done that. I left the season in May, we were in the playoffs and had lost to Philadelphia, and my primary was that same month. I then won the primary, and then the election; it was a very close election. Playing in the NBA and running for congress is a pretty unique thing to do.

“If I had lost, maybe I would have considered going back [to the NBA]. But no, I was kind of finished. I had 11 years in the NBA plus one year abroad, so that was a long time. I had in my mind that I wanted to do something post-sports that was different. I had played with Bradley on the Knicks in his last year and a couple years later he ran for the Senate. Bill advised me throughout the whole process and told me to run while I was in the NBA. So, I announced for Congress while I was still in the NBA.”

“It was a pretty big story even back then but we didn’t have social media. What happened was, everytime I won a game the announcers had announced that I was running for Congress and my opponent filed all kinds of complaints. I would grab Larry Bird or Magic Johnson after the game. I bought some season tickets and have a group of my supporters and I would bring over Magic or Larry after the game or one of those guys to say hi to them. It was one way I could campaign while I was still playing basketball.”

On his favorite memories in Cole Field House:
“I was there as a high school kid watching Kentucky play Texas Western. That was a great, iconic moment in college sports. It was important because of race and lots of reasons. It was neat to be there for that. And I was there in Cole for the ping-pong matches with the Chinese. I was there for a lot of momentous times. For me, the memory I remember was my last game in my senior year. Lenny [Elmore] and I were lifted onto the shoulders of all the fans and we were taken over to the baskets to cut the nets down. It was just a spontaneous eruption in Cole Field House. Having played there as an athlete, you don’t think about the crowd much. You are always out there focused on the game. Then, after the game’s over you focus on all these people lifting you up on their shoulders which was a memory you just won’t forget.”

On being named a Rhodes Scholar:
“When people ask me what my proudest accomplishment was at Maryland it was that. People are surprised about that. Because Maryland had never had a Rhodes Scholar – even to this date we have only had one more – it was a very special privilege to represent the University at Oxford. It was a great thrill to win that scholarship. Only 32 are given every year in America so it’s a special club. It’s great to be an all-american, it's great to have a scoring record at Maryland. But, in the scheme of things, being one of 32 is a pretty special thing. That experience was probably the most impactful in my life and probably the memory I remember most about Maryland.”

On Lefty Driesell being inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame:
“It was long overdue. We all worked hard to make it happen but It was really to Coach's credit. He was really magnanimous about it. He should’ve been in it earlier. At the time he retired there were only the most iconic coaches – Bobby Knight, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith – that might have been ahead of him in all-time wins. He did it in four different programs. This wasn’t just going to a school and staying 30 or 40 years and winning a lot of games. He did it by moving around to different schools, and all but Maryland were very small. They were programs where he had to go in and establish something. He is truly the turnaround king in college sports because he did it four times. I think that really made the whole hall of fame thing possible.”

On playing with such a talented group of players at Maryland: 
“We have so many guys that were drafted by the pro’s. Lenny [Elmore] and I were seniors and we had John Lucas who was an up and coming star. That itself was a great nucleus just to have three tremendous players. Then we had Mo White and Mo Howard and Owen Brown and Tom Roy and a lot of other players. It was a terrific team and it was a group that got along pretty well too which was extremely important. Again, it shows you the history of all this in that sense that we could be the third or second best team in the country and never go to the NCAA playoffs. You can lose your conference and still go to the NCAA today. Matter of fact, [in 2002] Maryland won the national title but lost the conference title. There are second chances and we didn’t have second chances. They changed the rules. They opened up from 25 games to when I was playing to 32 and now here we are at 68. It’s a lot easier to get in the NCAA’s than it was when we played. There were only 16 teams in the NIT, and 25 in the NCAA.”