The San Diego State men’s basketball team will honor former Aztec athletic director, Fred Miller, who died last week at its exhibition game against UCSD on Thursday with a moment of silence before the game.
Miller, who was athletic director from 9985 to 1995, died at his home in Oregon. He was 86. During his tenure at SDSU, he helped formed the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for a number of Olympic sports without conference affiliations. The Federation helped to conserve competition costs for these sports.
Miller was also instrumental in convincing students at SDSU to increase their yearly activities fees to fund construction for a $30 million Student Activity Center that eventually became Viejas Arena. He also initiated one of college athletics’ first corporate sponsorship programs to fund scholarships for all of SDSU’s varsity sports at the time.
Before coming to SDSU, Miller was the athletic director at Long Beach State (1967-71) and Arizona State (1971-80). In 2010, he was inducted into the Aztec Athletic Hall of Fame. He has earned similar recognition at Long Beach State and Arizona State.
The exhibition game against the Tritons on Thursday will open the Brian Dutcher era for the Aztecs. This season is Dutcher’s first as the head coach after being on staff for Steve Fisher the previous 18 seasons. Fisher retired in April.
Thursday’s game also marks the second straight seasons the SDSU and UCSD met in an exhibition setting. Last year, the Aztecs won 76-63.
The exhibition game is at 7 p.m. at the Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena.
