When Miller arrived as the University of Tampa men’s soccer coach in 1978, he proclaimed that the Spartans would win a national championship within five years. At the time, that seemed laughable because UT’s athletic program was struggling for survival, scratching out minimal scholarships and funding. Public perception was still lagging after UT had eliminated its beloved football program three years earlier.

But there was Miller in 1981, falling to his knees in celebration on a frozen field at New Haven, Conn. His UT squad defeated Cal State-Los Angeles 1-0 on Peter Johansson’s 30-yard free-kick blast two minutes into overtime, clinching the NCAA Division II national championship and a 15-0-3 season for the Spartans.

“Coach Miller was just a legend, and he made everyone better because he knew how to push the right buttons,’ said Keith Fulk, a 1981 UT player. “We had guys with long hair and laid-back outlooks, but they were killers on the field. Jay molded us all together. This was more than X’s and O’s. Coach Miller was magic and let us be ourselves.’

Miller’s Spartans were the 1983 national runner-up and six-time Sunshine State Conference champions during his 10-year tenure at UT. In seven seasons at the University of South Florida, Miller’s Bulls were three-time Sun Belt Conference champions and won the initial Metro Conference title as well.

He also worked as the National Coaching Coordinator for the United States Soccer Federation, having received a decade’s worth of international coaching experience, serving as head coach or assistant coach for eight different age-group National Teams or World University Games squads.