Salt Lake City – Chris Hill, Utah’s athletic director of 18 years, teared up on the floor of the University of Utah’s Huntsman Center on Tuesday as he read from a letter that meant enough for him to laminate.
Andre Miller had slid the note under Hill’s office door in 1999, a quiet thank-you for what five years on the school’s basketball team had done for him.
Tuesday, the Nuggets point guard gave another, more high-profile thank-you, announcing a $500,000 donation to his alma mater. The money will be split between a $300,000 endowed scholarship for his former team and $200,000 for renovating the locker room.
“I still remember being nervous coming to campus the first day,” Miller recalled. “The university, Utah and Salt Lake City accepted me. I enjoyed the college environment.”
Miller spoke beneath his retired No. 24 jersey and in front of old friends and mentors. Also attending were current Utah coach Ray Giacoletti; Miller’s stepfather, Ronald Haralson; and his mother, Andrea Robinson-Haralson.
“I can think of very few people who have grown the way Andre has grown,” Hill said. “From when I first met him, the year he had to stay out and had to study and become eligible, he had trouble speaking in front of three people. Not in terms of what he said, but how shy he was.”
