- Publish date:
A Legacy of Speed
Throughout his sprinting career Lennox Miller, who died last week of cancer at age 58, always seemed to be overshadowed just a bit. At the 1968 Olympics, running for his native Jamaica, he won silver in the 100 meters, finishing behind Jim Hines, who set a world record. In '72 Miller took the bronze. Even when he set a world record--as part of USC's 4√ó110-yard relay team, in 1967--he wasn't the one people remembered; the third leg was run by one O.J. Simpson. But none of that mattered to Miller. "We were college kids who ran in our spare time for the love of it," he said last year.
In 1996--22 years after he began practicing dentistry in Pasadena--Miller could finally say he had accomplished something truly distinctive. His daughter Inger won a gold medal as part of the U.S. 400-meter relay team, making the Millers the first father-daughter combination to win Olympic track and field medals. Before she received her gold, Inger said she was eager to get a look at the medal that would complete the family's set. "I've seen a silver and a bronze," she said. "I think we'll put them together with my dad's."
COLOR PHOTO
JERRY COOKE (MILLER)
LIKE FATHER....
Miller (left, with Inger in '99) won the family's second medal, in '72.
COLOR PHOTO
ISABEL SNYDER (MILLER AND INGER)
  [See caption above.]
