Maryland, 1974
• 1972 Academic All-America® First Team
• 1973 Academic All-America® First Team
• 1974 Academic All-America® First Team
Tom McMillen was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 1988.
Throughout his life, Charles Thomas “Tom” McMillen has excelled on the basketball court, in the classroom and on the floor of the United States Congress.
McMillen was born on May 26, 1952 in Elmira, NY and then moved to Mansfield, PA. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the number one high school basketball player in the United States when he graduated from Mansfield High School in 1970. McMillen became the biggest recruiting catch of Coach Lefty Driesell’s career when he committed to the University of Maryland over rival coach Dean Smith and the North Carolina Tar Heels. He was a three-time All-American and an Academic All-American while playing basketball for the Terrapins and also became the first and only University of Maryland student to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.
McMillen was a member of the historic and controversial 1972 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team. The United States lost the gold medal-game in the waning seconds as the clock was reset to the 3-second mark three times because of foul and timeout controversies. The U.S. team filed a protest and voted unanimously to refuse their silver medals. The team was approached by the U.S. Olympic Committee thirty years after the Munich games about accepting their medals, but their answer was still the same. The infamous silver medals remain locked in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland.
McMillen graduated from Maryland in 1974 with a degree in chemistry and received a Master of Arts from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He was drafted into the NBA with the Buffalo Braves in 1974. He played for four teams throughout his professional career: the Braves, the New York Knicks, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Washington Bullets. In 1986 McMillen hung up his jersey after 11 years in the NBA to begin a career in politics.
McMillen was elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat in 1987 and served as Maryland’s 4th district representative until 1993. At six feet, 11 inches tall, McMillen is believed to be the tallest congressional representative ever. In 1993 President Clinton appointed McMillen as the co-chair of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 McMillen created a group of homeland security entrepreneurs called the Homeland Security Corporation. He also was a member of the University of Maryland’s Board of Regents.
McMillen received many honors for his college basketball achievements. In 2002 he was chosen as one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top 50 players of all time at the 50th anniversary celebration of the ACC.