After 2 1/2 Years, Miller Quits as USOC Director

In a move that came as a surprise only in its timing, George D. Miller has resigned as executive director of the United States Olympic Committee.

Miller, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, served a little more than 2 1/2 years in his position. His resignation, announced Monday by the USOC, took effect at the close of the Pan American Games Sunday.

The USOC announcement said that Miller, 57, resigned for “personal reasons.”

Miller, reached at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., would not elaborate on that except to say that some of the personal reasons were related to his work.

“I’d like to have extended to the end of (1988), but circumstances I can’t discuss made it more realistic to submit my resignation at this time,” Miller said. “I had been thinking of resigning for a couple of months.”

Miller was an uncertain choice with some to lead the USOC because he lacked experience in sports administration. He has also had several major policy differences with USOC and amateur sports leadership since he assumed his position in February, 1985.

In two of the more publicized differences, he opposed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to no longer hold the Winter and Summer Olympics in the same year and he worked to discourage U.S. participation in the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow.

USOC President Robert Helmick voted with the IOC majority to switch the Winter Games starting in 1994 and as the president of the FINA, the world governing for aquatic sports, helped recruit athletes for the Goodwill Games.

“This came about faster than we thought,” Helmick said from his office in Des Moines, Iowa. “George said it was personal reasons, and I respect his desire to leave it at that.”

Others involved in U.S. amateur sports indicated that the differences between Miller and Helmick had led to a general dissatisfaction with Miller.

“The Goodwill Games were the start of his downward slide,” said Mike Jacki, executive director of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation. “(But) he had fairly rough going right from the start. You get off on the wrong foot, and it’s hard to recover.”

Officials with several other amateur sports expressed similar concerns about Miller’s leadership.

“To a degree, the USOC was becoming what the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) was--and they broke up the AAU,” said Donald F. Hull, president of the USA/Amateur Boxing Federation. “It was too heavy at the top.”

Said Todd Smith, executive director of U.S. Diving: “Being inexperienced in amateur sports, he had a lot of catching up to do. It’s not a good situation when you have Bob Helmick and George Miller publicly expressing differences on policy. You should work those out beforehand and have a unified front.”

But Miller said he was under no pressure to resign, and that he had the support of most of the 38 amateur sports national governing bodies that help make up the USOC. He said he was proud of his work with the USOC, especially in fund raising and for his part in an agreement with the IOC for increased television revenue from future Olympics.

“I don’t want to say anything that will harm the Olympic movement,” Miller said. “The Olympic movement began long before I got here and will continue long after I am gone.”

Miller will remain as a consultant with the USOC through the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea.

Baaron B. Pittenger, the assistant executive director, will take over as acting executive director while a replacement for Miller is sought. Pittenger will be assisted in the transition period by USOC Vice President Stephen B. Sobel.

A search committee has been formed, headed by William E. Simon, immediate past president of the USOC. Helmick said he hoped the committee could recommend a permanent replacement in time for USOC meetings scheduled Oct. 24-25 in Oklahoma City, Okla.