LOUISVILLE, Ky. — NFCA Hall of Famer Liz Miller was remembered fondly by players and colleagues alike in the days following her Dec. 5 death at age 78.
Miller, a legendary coach at the University of Notre Dame and Lake Michigan College, was a trailblazer for women’s sports, which earned her induction into the Hall of Fames at both Bronson High School (2012), where she starred in intramural sports pre-Title IX, and Western Michigan University (1994), where she played field hockey and volleyball.
Her talents leading softball teams led to her induction into the NFCA Hall of Fame in 2005, just four years after going 54-7 and earning the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in her final season guiding the Irish. Miller won nine regular-season conference titles and five league Coach of the Year honors, and compiled a 376-156 mark over nine seasons at Notre Dame, following 17 stellar years at Lake Michigan. Together, she won 917 career softball games, lost just 298, claimed 21 conference titles and posted 13 consecutive winning seasons.
At Notre Dame, the Irish won more than 30 games every season under Miller and made six NCAA championship appearances. Most of the major Notre Dame records were established during her run, and she coached 10 All-Americans, 14 Academic All-Americans and 25 NFCA All-Mideast Region selections. Twenty seven earned Big East First-Team plaudits and 13 scored Midwestern Collegiate Conference honors.
“I was fortunate to be coached by Liz Miller during my college career,” longtime Saint Louis University head coach Christy Connoyer said. “I was on her first team at Notre Dame and under her guidance, she coached us to the first NCAA tournament appearance in Notre Dame history my senior year (1994). She had faith in us and trusted us to do the job she had given us. She also held us to a standard to do it right!”
“She had such a huge impact on Notre Dame softball and she had such a huge impact on me and the direction of my professional life.”
It was Miller who allowed Connoyer to get her feet wet in coaching as a student-athlete during the Irish’s first softball camp, and it was Miller who recommended her for an assistant coaching job to then-Purdue head coach Carol Bruggeman, herself a future NFCA Hall of Famer, who had a hand in more than 700 victories over her own distinguished coaching career before joining the NFCA full-time in 2014, which includes serving for the past decade as the Association’s CEO.
“If not for Liz Miller, my path in collegiate coaching would not be the same,” Connoyer said. “The people I have met and the opportunities I have been afforded are all due to Liz Miller. I think of Coach Miller’s impact in my life and thank her profusely. I directly see how she is still impacting my career today and will be forever grateful.”
Retired Western Michigan head coach Kathy Leitke played for, coached with and served as an assistant athletic director under Miller at Lake Michigan.
“Liz Miller was a pioneer and leader of women’s athletics in southwest Michigan and was a key player in advancing softball across the country,” Leitke said. “Her knowledge, ability to teach and her guidance opened doors and gave opportunities to young women that have continued to flourish today. Her connection to people was the foundation of her success, as she knew how to get the best out of each person without ever raising her voice. You never wanted to disappoint her. She truly was a difference-maker in my life and in the lives of so many she coached and or worked with over the years.”
Former Irish player and longtime Notre Dame assistant coach Lizzy (Lemire) Ristano remembered Miller’s commitment to greatness, but also her affection for her players.
“The thing that sticks out to me the most about Coach Miller was the standard that she set and her unwavering commitment to have all of her players and staff meet that standard,” Ristano said. “She was tough, but in a great way that made us all better. Coach Miller knew what we were capable of achieving and laid the path for us to get there. She loved us and welcomed our team into her home for dinners and downtime, as we were all living in this little town in Indiana far away from our own homes.”
Kris (McCleary) Ganeff played for Miller and coached for more than two decades at Notre Dame alongside Miller’s former assistant and successor Deanna Gumpf, before succeeding Gumpf as the Irish head coach this past season.
“When I was 17, Coach Miller changed the course of my life by asking me to come on a visit to the University of Notre Dame,” Ganeff explained. “I knew the instant I walked on campus that I wanted to play for her and represent the Irish. There were so many lessons that Coach taught all of us and prepared us to go out into the world as strong, independent forces of good. She taught us to represent ourselves, our families and the University of Notre Dame at all times. I carry that with me always.”
“She taught us all that women can be highly successful at work and at home without compromising one for the other. She was a legendary coach, but a Hall of Fame mother and wife. She paved the way for all of us. I walk into work every single day wanting to make her proud that I am walking in her shoes.”
Gumpf won a Notre Dame-record 855 games over 22 seasons following Miller, which included 21 NCAA Regional appearances, seven Big East regular-season titles and four Big East tournament crowns. She and Hall of Fame former women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw (848 wins) are the only two head coaches in the school’s illustrious athletic history to win more than 750 career games.
“She brought me to Notre Dame in the fall of 1997,” Gumpf said. “I didn’t expect to stay more than five years, but I did. She taught me how to be a coach. From her, I learned to give everything I had to our players — to give my heart, my commitment and my love to the game and to our program. Those lessons went far beyond the field; they became life lessons that continue to guide me.”
“We were so close during the four years we coached together, and those years shaped who I am both professionally and personally. I am forever grateful and deeply honored to have stood by her side during those years.”
Kathleen “Kas” Hoag, the head coach at Mercy High School in her native Connecticut, was thankful to Miller’s children, Jennifer and Jeremy, for sharing their mom with so many players over the years.
“To us, she was ‘Coach Miller,’ but we always knew she belonged to you first,” Hoag wrote to the family. “You shared her with so many young women during the most formative years of our lives, and I hope you can feel pride knowing the profound and lasting imprint she made on all of us.”
“She taught us resilience, accountability, toughness and how to carry ourselves in the world. She pushed us, protected us and believed in us long before we believed in ourselves. Because of her, Notre Dame became a national name in college softball. Because of her, we became the teammates, friends and the women we are today. She built a legacy that will outlive all of us.”
After graduation from Western Michigan, Miller taught the entirety of the school district’s physical education classes in Galien, Mich., about 30 minutes west of Notre Dame’s campus, and she started and coached the first female programs at Galien in basketball, softball, track and volleyball. In 1973, Miller was hired to start the women's athletic program at Lake Michigan and coached basketball, softball and volleyball there, leading her teams to 12 NJCAA national tournament appearances and numerous conference, state and regional titles.
In 1978, she was named Lake Michigan’s athletic director, becoming the first female athletic director for both men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic programs in the state of Michigan.
Her coaching record for those three sports at Lake Michigan was 1,047-331, and Miller's softball team was a perennial powerhouse, going 541-143, which was the second-highest total in NJCAA history at the time. Miller earned Region XII Softball Coach of the Year honors 10 times from 1980-90.
In 1987, she and her husband Lloyd were awarded the Bernard C. Radde Distinguished Service Award for advancing the cause of the college and overall higher education. The school’s athletics office suite and their softball field were both named in honor of Miller and her family’s contributions to Lake Michigan.
Funeral services for Miller were held on Dec. 20 in South Bend, Ind., the city in which she made much of her mark professionally. To assure her impact would be felt long after her death in her native Michigan, memorial gifts were sought in her name to the Michigan Gateway Community Foundation, which supports philanthropic efforts in the state’s South Berrien and Cass counties.
