Member of Congress, Basketball Player, Author
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Questions and Answers with Leading Sports Reformers

By tmcmillen.net |

Tom McMillen was a three-time All-American basketball player at the University of Maryland. He then was a Rhodes Scholar and played professional basketball in Europe for a year before embarking on an 11-season career in the National Basketball Association. He retired in 1986 to begin a political career. He represented the 4th congressional district of […]

Silver Reunion

By Tom McMillen |

Silver Reunion

Directed by Rory Karpf Reuniting over four decades after the USA men’s Olympic basketball team controversially lost the gold to the Russians and declined the silver medal, the 12 team members met to make a decision. More Info

Big Ten. Big mistake.

By Tom McMillen |

From The Washington Post It’s a done deal: On Monday, the University of Maryland’s board of regents voted to have the school’s athletic department leave the Atlantic Coast Conference and join the Big Ten Conference. I am on the board, and I opposed this decision primarily because of the way it was made. Most important, […]

Tom McMillen Rails on Decision-Making Process, Confidentiality Agreement in Washington Post Op-ed

By Tom McMillen |

From The Washington Post Tom McMillen, the lone dissenter during the Maryland Board of Regents’ Monday morning vote to approve the university’s move to the Big Ten Conference, expressed his issues with the discussion process in a Washington Post op-ed, expounding on a perceived lack of disclosure stemming from a confidentiality agreement signed by Maryland […]

Washington Politicians Who Know How to Play Ball

By Hillel Kuttler, The New York Times |

by Hillel Kuttler BALTIMORE — One very tall man in Maryland knows something about competing hard until the game ends. That man, Tom McMillen, had this advice for candidates in the elections Tuesday: shake every hand. His campaigning until the polls closed in 1986 may have made the difference in his successful race to represent […]

An Olympic Détente for the 1972 Men’s Basketball Team

By Tom McMillen |

from The Daily Beast In the chill of the Cold War, the 1972 U.S. basketball team went up against the U.S.S.R.—and was cheated out of a gold medal. Former representative Tom McMillen, who was on the team, offers a peace plan. Nearly 40 years ago, shortly after midnight on Sept. 10, 1972, the U.S. men’s […]

An Olympic Remembrance

By Tom McMillen |

Tom McMillen’s address to the Rhodes Olympic Reception in London about his time as an Olympic basketball player, in the 1972 Munich Olympics as part of the team representing the United States. John, thank you for that kind introduction. Whenever such nice things are said about me, I realize that I should keep my head […]

A Bitter Lesson in Basketball and Terrorism

By by Stephen Moore, The Wall Street Journal |

by Stephen Moore ‘That was the most bitter and painful experience of my life,” observes Tom McMillen. “What happened in Munich was the most controversial and tragic sports competition in modern times.” Mr. McMillen is a former college and NBA basketball star, Rhodes scholar, three-term Democratic member of Congress, and now successful businessman. We’re in […]

Let’s Start Paying College Athletes

By Tom McMillen |

C. THOMAS MCMILLEN, former college and professional basketball player and former member of Congress, Ellicott City, Md. I certainly agree with Joe Nocera that basketball and football players are treated like chattel in the present system. Denying players a basic stipend when coaches are making ridiculous amounts is the height of inequity. But paying football […]

Eliminate the Profit Motive

By Tom McMillen |

by C. Thomas McMillen The real problem with major intercollegiate sports programs is that the NCAA is powerless to effect meaningful change in the finances of college athletics. If it tried to exercise its dwindling power to seek real transformation rather than short-term palliative measures, the most powerful conferences and colleges could simply leave the […]

Tom McMillen

Tom McMillen