Winning Is a Family Tradition for Miller

Tradition is the mortar that binds the bricks of USC, and Inger Miller’s legacy is part of that tradition.

Miller, a junior, carries the hopes of a Trojan track team.

As her father did, 14 years ago.

Miller is the daughter of former Trojan star Lennox Miller, who also won a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics and a bronze in the 1972 Olympics while running the 100 meters for Jamaica.

What’s more, Barbara Edmonson, USC’s women’s coach, also competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. Edmonson, competing under her maiden name of Ferrell, was a member of the 1968 U.S. 400-meter relay team that won the gold medal.

With Miller’s soft-spoken father and Edmonson offering images of the Olympics as inspiration, Miller has become one of the nation’s top female sprinters.

Miller did not begin running track until her sophomore year at Pasadena Muir High in 1988, but she met with almost instant success. In her first season, she finished second in the State championship meet in the 100 meters and third in the 200.

“She had a head start on everyone because she’s got those great genes from her dad,” Edmonson said.

By her senior year at Muir, she had the best girls’ prep times in the nation in both the 100 and 200 meters, 11.48 and 23.57, respectively.

In her freshman year at USC, however, Miller had problems, and repeated adjustments only seemed to make the situation worse.

But finally, something clicked--she said she is not sure what it was--and she broke the school record in the 100 meters last season as a sophomore in 11.14. She also qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials.

But in May, she suffered a pulled hamstring and her hopes for the NCAA meet and for making the U.S. Olympic team vanished.

Her disappointment was keen, but not devastating.

“It’s part of maturing and growing up and learning what I can do and what I shouldn’t do,” she said.

And Miller has approached this season with a new outlook, which has served her well.

She won the 100 meters in 11.11 seconds and the 200 in a school-record 22.33 at the Mt. San Antonio Relays on Saturday. Both times were world bests for 1993.

Barring injury, Miller is a good bet to lead the crowd at the NCAA meet in New Orleans in June.

“I’m looking at the 100 and 200 as her events,” Edmonson said. “She is so focused this year that it is really hard for me to believe that anything is going to take something away from her that she really wants.

“Last year it was Quincy Watts (the Olympic and NCAA champion in the 400 meters) who we had do his thing, and now it’s Inger Miller.”

Miller has a tendency to stand out in a crowd. Although she is short for a sprinter at 5 feet 4, she is powerful.

Miller was a 1990 Rose Parade princess and made hundreds of speaking appearances during her senior year at Muir as a member of the Rose Court.

She says she is never pressured by her father in track, although he does offer advice.

And she takes his advice the way most young adults take advice from their parents--grudgingly.

“Kids never really want to listen to their parents,” Miller said with a laugh. “But then, when you don’t, you find out that things don’t go best.”

That isn’t he case for Miller this season.

One of the biggest meets of the season, USC against UCLA, is set for Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, with Arizona also competing. Field events begin at 10 a.m., running events at 1 p.m.

Some young adults have an appreciation of life that seems beyond their age. Consider Gentry Bradley, a freshman sprinter at UCLA who already has learned a great deal about living.

Bradley is a big part of UCLA’s hopes for another Pacific 10 Conference title this season. He runs the second leg of UCLA’s 400-meter relay, which has already posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 39.71.

Bradley suffered a strained hamstring while running in the 400 relay at the Mt. SAC Relays, and the team finished sixth in 39.96. Bradley is expected to recover before the Pac-10 meet May 21-22 at California.

Playing such a major role might intimidate another freshman sprinter, but Bradley takes it in stride.

He already knows there are things in life much more important.

As a child, Bradley shared a bedroom with his grandmother in his family’s three-bedroom home in Lynwood.

Bradley remembers when he was 8, his grandmother seemed like a burden.

He had to run errands for her, fetch drinks of water for her, fix things in the house. He would walk her to the store, praying the whole way that his friends would not see him and tease him.

But Alma Bradley died in 1987, and her grandson’s point of view has changed drastically.

“Now that I sit back and think about it, I wish I could still do those things with her,” Bradley said. “I just miss her and love her so much. I just want to show her what I’m accomplishing. I know she can see it, though.”

Bradley has run a career-best 20.94 in the 200 meters this season. He provides good competition for his teammate, Tony Miller, who was the 1992 Pac-10 champion in the 100 and 200 meters. Miller’s best time this season in the 200 is 21.19, although he has a career best of 20.51.

Bradley’s times are surprising, considering that at Pius X High, he ran on the school’s dirt track. When it rained, the track team ran laps in the gym.

Still, Bradley won the 200 meters and placed second in the 100 at the State meet as a senior.

But Bradley has overcome bigger obstacles than dirt tracks. The toughest was dragging himself out of what he calls “the bad years,” when his friends were delinquents, headed for trouble.

“I’ve always been kept out of trouble and put in the right place,” Bradley said. “Now, I have this golden opportunity around here that a lot of people wish they had, so it is my duty to take advantage of that.”