Dan Miles (born Oct. 9, 1945) is a Southern Oregon legend as both athlete and coach. He enjoyed a record-setting football career at Southern Oregon Normal (now SOU) and then became legendary at his old schools archrival, coaching basketball at Oregon Tech.
It started at Medford High School, where Miles was the classic three-sport team leader. He quarterbacked the Black Tornado to the 1962 OSAA state championship and was offered a baseball scholarship at Oregon State.
Instead, he decided to keep playing three sports at Southern. He was a four-year starter in football and baseball and played basketball. As a quarterback, he set two NCAA records for passing accuracy, completing 77% of his throws in 1964 and 66% for his career. Miles led the nation in passing in 1964 and in total offense in 1965. He earned all-American honors in football and All-District honors in baseball.
Miles began his coaching career at Oregon Tech and, again, was involved with multiple sports. In 45 years, he coached the softball, baseball and men's basketball teams at various times, all achieving great success. He is most known for his amazing record with Hustlin' Owls basketball squad. Dan took over head coaching duties in 1972 and immediately made the team a winner. 1,040 wins to be exact, that’s in the top five of all collegiate coaches at any level. That led to 14 regular-season conference championships, nine conference tournament championships and 17 trips to the NAIA tournament. Those teams won three national championships. Dan Miles was an early innovator in metrics, creating his own system to evaluate players more thoroughly through a combination of positive and negative stats.
He also coached Owls softball (ten years) and baseball (seven years) teams and had a winning career mark with those teams as well.
Dan’s other accolades include: 2-time NAIA basketball coach of the year (2004, 2008); Slats Gill All-Sports Coach of the Year (2004); NAIA Champion of Character Award for All Sports (2009); National Association of Basketball Coaches- Coach of the year (2012); DNA Award at the Oregon Sports Award Show (2013). Dan retired from coaching in 2016 and in the same year, the street “Danny Miles Way”, was named after him.
Dan Miles has been inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame; Small College Basketball Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Southern Oregon University, Oregon Tech, Medford High School and City of Medford halls of fame. His three national championship teams were also inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.
