Charles Thomas McMillen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Thomas McMillen
Position Power forward/Center
Height 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Weight 215 lb (98 kg)
Born May 26, 1952 (1952-05-26) (age 56)
Elmira, New York
Nationality USA
College Maryland
Draft 9th overall, 1974
Buffalo Braves
Pro career 1975–1986
Former teams Buffalo Braves (1975–1977)
New York Knicks (1977)
Atlanta Hawks (1977–1983)
Washington Bullets (1983–1986)
Olympic medal record
Men's Basketball
Silver Munich 1972 United States

Charles Thomas "Tom" McMillen (born May 26, 1952 in Elmira, New York) is a retired NBA professional basketball player, Rhodes Scholar, and Democratic U.S. Congressman who represented the 4th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1987 to January 3, 1993.

Prior to entering politics, McMillen was a star basketball player on all levels. In 1970, he was the number one high school basketball player in the U.S. coming out of Mansfield, Pennsylvania, and was the biggest recruiting catch early in Coach Lefty Driesell's career at the University of Maryland, beating out rival Coach Dean Smith of the University of North Carolina for McMillen's services. McMillen was also a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team that lost the epic and controversial gold medal game to the Soviet Union. Ultimately, the team voted unanimously to refuse to accept the silver medal and when approached by the International Olympic Committee 30 years later, the result was the same — keep the medals. They still lay in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland.

After graduating from Maryland in 1974, McMillen was drafted by the Buffalo Braves. During his National Basketball Association career, he would play for the Braves, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, and Washington Bullets before retiring in 1986 to pursue his political career.

He was elected to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat to represent Maryland's 4th district, and served 1987-1993 as that district's representative. In 1992, however, the 4th was redrawn as a black-majority district due to a mandate from the Justice Department. McMillen's home in Crofton was drawn into the Eastern Shore-based 1st District, represented by one-term Republican Congressman Wayne Gilchrest. Although McMillen did very well in the more urbanized areas of the district near Baltimore and Washington, D.C., it was not enough to overcome Gilchrest's margin on the Eastern Shore, and he left the House in January 1993. In addition to running in territory he did not know and that did not know him, McMillen was hamstrung by revelations that one-third of his political action committee contributions were made by banking interests.

After the September 11 attacks, McMillen acquired many small business interests related to homeland security and consolidated them under a distressed video on demand engineering firm called Celerity Systems, which he renamed Homeland Security Capital Corp. He has also recently been appointed to the Board of the University of Maryland.[disambiguation needed]

[edit] Trivia

  • McMillen is thought to be the tallest-ever member of the United States Congress. At 6 feet 11 inches, he was two feet taller than Barbara Mikulski, then a fellow representative from Maryland and thought to be the shortest representative ever.[1]

[edit] Election history

Year Office Subject Party Votes Pct Opponent Party Votes Pct
1992 Congress, District 1 Tom McMillen Democrat 112,771 48.43 Wayne Gilchrest Republican 120,084 51.57

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dowd, Maureen. "WASHINGTON TALK: CONGRESS; A Matter of Measurement", New York Times, April 20, 1987. Retrieved on 2008-06-04. 

Tom McMillen to Speak at Mansfield University Commencement http://www.mansfield.edu/news/story/default.cfm?SID=1194<

Mansfield University Commencement http://www.mansfield.edu/news/story/default.cfm?SID=1213

Preceded by
Marjorie Holt		 Representative of the Fourth Congressional District of Maryland
1987–1993		 Succeeded by
Albert Wynn
v • d • e
Image:Med 2.png 1972 Olympic Silver Medalists Men's Basketball – United States Image:Med 2.png
Representatives to the 100th–102nd United States Congresses from Maryland
100th Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski House: B. Byron | R. Dyson | S. Hoyer | H. Bentley | B. Cardin | C. T. McMillen | K. Mfume | C. Morella
101st Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski House: B. Byron | R. Dyson | S. Hoyer | H. Bentley | B. Cardin | C. T. McMillen | K. Mfume | C. Morella
102nd Senate: P. Sarbanes | B. Mikulski House: B. Byron | S. Hoyer | H. Bentley | B. Cardin | C. T. McMillen | K. Mfume | C. Morella | W. Gilchrest