Tom Mcmillen

ONCE, everything Tom McMillen touched turned golden. McMillen made the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was still in high school, starred on the great University of Maryland basketball teams of the early 1970s and played on the U.S. Olympic team. He graduated from College Park, went to Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association and served three consecutive terms in the House as the tallest (6 feet 11) congressman in history. But take the ball out of his hands, take him off Capitol Hill, put him in a business suit and McMillen looks more like a carnival barker than a man of accomplishment.

Former Terps center Tom McMillen will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame's class of 2013, the Maryland athletic department announced Tuesday. The 6-foot-11 McMillen averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds during his four-year Maryland career (1970-74). A two-time All-ACC first-team selection, McMillen was MVP of the Terps' 1972 NIT championship game win over Niagara. “We're thrilled for Tom to receive this much deserved honor,” Maryland director of athletics Kevin Anderson said in a news release.

CongressFirst DistrictBarbara O. Kreamer (D)Wayne T. Gilchrest (R)Second DistrictRonald P. Bowers (D)Third DistrictBenjamin L. Cardin (D)Harwood Nichols (R)Fourth DistrictTom McMillen (D)Robert P. Duckworth (R)Fifth DistrictSteny Hoyer (D)Gregory K. Washington (R)Sixth DistrictBeverly B. Byron (D)Christopher Fiotes Jr. (R)Seventh DistrictKweisi Mfume (D)@Eighth DistrictConstance Morella (R)James Walker Jr. (D)

Members of the Towson baseball and men's soccer teams continue to wait to hear whether their programs will be disbanded by the university. President Maravene Loeschke sent a message to students and faculty Monday saying that a task force asked to study the decision had endorsed the recommendation to cut the sports. But she also said she would need more time to examine the issue before making her decision. She hopes to do so “as soon after winter break as possible.” Loeschke was not available for an interview this week, nor was Towson athletics director Mike Waddell.

TOM MCMILLEN, Maryland's tallest congressman, has said it is to his credit he's not an ideologue. Yet even some of his supporters admit to having trouble detecting any internal compass that guides his politics after six years in office.A compelling article in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated won't do anything to dissuade that sense of the congressman.The piece is about the 1972 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team. Mr. McMillen, then a star forward at College Park, played for that team, the one involved in that great controversy surrounding the first international loss -- ever -- by an American basketball team.

From: Dorothy F. GwinnCorresponding secretaryRepublican Women of Anne Arundel CountyMembers attending the board meeting of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County were very chagrined to read the article on congressional redistricting (The Sun, Sept. 24) in which our present congressman, Tom McMillen, is quoted as wondering "how much longer a woman of Mrs. Bentley's age will remain in Congress."There is nothing that dictates at what age a member of Congress should retire. Certainly, when one has the knowledge, stamina and proven ability that Mrs. Bentley possesses, there is no reason to believe she will not be able to serve her constituency very well for many more years to come.

When Congressmen Wayne Gilchrest and Tom McMillen face off tonight in a debate at Anne Arundel Community College, Severna Park residents will learn more about the candidates than their names. At least that's the hope of the sponsors.For in this segment of the redesigned 1st District, voters seem as ill-informed about the candidates for the House of Representatives as they are uncertain who they'll choose. Of dozens interviewed in local shopping centers this week, most said they didn't know enough about the race to have an opinion.

An editorial yesterday in The Sun said that Representative Tom McMillen represents the 2nd Congressional District. He represents the 4th District.The Sun regrets the errors.It is wrong for colleges to overemphasize sports, but it shouldn't be illegal.There is no doubt that college athletics needs reforming. For too long, coaches and athletics directors, not college presidents and other academic officials, have had effective control. For too long, the term "student-athlete" has seemed an oxymoron at many schools which compete at the top levels of competition.

Lisa Renshaw really knows how to hurt a guy.Renshaw, a Republican from Severn, began her run for Congress yesterday, assailing U.S. Representative Tom McMillen, D-4th, as a "Dukakis Democrat." Renshaw didn't spare the L-word, either, in her assault on McMillen."Tom McMillen may have been a center on the basketball court, butin Congress, he has been playing far left of center for too long," Renshaw said. "Tom McMillen, the basketball player turned congressman,is so liberal he's out of bounds."

The Maryland Democratic Party has come up with yet another congressional redistricting plan, one that would stretch U.S. Representative Tom McMillen's mostly Anne Arundel County district all the way from Pocomoke City on the lower Eastern Shore to Essex in eastern Baltimore County.This latest plan -- the third variation the Democrats have concocted -- would split the Eastern Shore into two congressional districts, would divide Southern Maryland's three counties into two districts and would split Baltimore County among five of the state's eight congressmen.

A lineup of athletes - including Sugar Ray Leonard, Dorothy Hamill, Katie Hoff, Kimmie Meissner, Vicky Bullett, Charles Jenkins, Jessica Long and Tom McMillen - is impressive enough. Mingling with them and other sports stars and reporters at a Baltimore party can make you downright giddy. That was certainly the mood inside the Sports Legends Museum, where a couple hundred folks gathered for a VIP reception benefiting the Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation. That soiree was just the warm-up for the evening's big bash.

ONCE, everything Tom McMillen touched turned golden. McMillen made the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was still in high school, starred on the great University of Maryland basketball teams of the early 1970s and played on the U.S. Olympic team. He graduated from College Park, went to Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association and served three consecutive terms in the House as the tallest (6 feet 11) congressman in history. But take the ball out of his hands, take him off Capitol Hill, put him in a business suit and McMillen looks more like a carnival barker than a man of accomplishment.

As campaign volunteers milled about in a southwest Baltimore parking lot before a door-to-door literature drop, Bob Ehrlich took control. "Huddle up! Huddle up!" he cried. "OK," he said, his arms stretched across T-shirted backs. "We're going to split up in groups. You guys take one side of the street. You take the other. We'll be right behind you." Ehrlich, the former linebacker, was playing quarterback - exactly the role he's hoping to play in Annapolis next year. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is a Republican and a gubernatorial candidate.

In the most ideal scenario, all four of his former players would have heard their names called on NBA draft night at Madison Square Garden. But University of Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams gladly settled for the next-best thing. And it still marked the best draft he has ever enjoyed during 13 seasons in College Park, coming on the heels of the Terrapins' first-ever national championship. Sophomore power forward Chris Wilcox (Los Angeles Clippers), senior shooting guard Juan Dixon (Washington Wizards)

Game 1: Oklahoma vs. Indiana Time: 6:07 p.m. TV: Chs. 13,9 Line: Oklahoma by 7 The Sooners appear to be the stronger team, but the Hoosiers have been full of surprises so far in the tournament. Page 10 Game 2: Mayalnd vs. Kansas Time: 8:47 p.m. TV: Chs. 13,9 Line: Kansas by 1 1/2 Page 3 On a mission One year after losing in the Final Four, a focused, veteran Maryland team aims to atone with a national championship. Page 4 The coaches Gary Williams and Roy Williams are two of the top coaches in the college game.

WASHINGTON -- The moment came with 4:09 left in the first half, and Juan Dixon was too busy sizing up Wisconsin to notice. All season, Dixon had been chasing the late Len Bias on the University of Maryland's all-time scoring list. When Dixon made his first three-pointer yesterday to give the Terps a 32-25 lead in an 87-57 rout of the Badgers, he had reached 2,150 career points and stood alone. "Coming into this school, a lot of people knocked Coach [Gary] Williams for recruiting me. I had a lot of critics," Dixon said.

It took only a light breeze to lift the smell of sausage and pit beef over the throng of supporters for U.S. Representative Tom McMillen yesterday afternoon, but food and beer were second on the menu to thepolitical talk.While 1,200 people downed food and passed around campaign buttons, many were wondering whether once-a-decade redistricting will leave the 4th District Democrat's name on their ballots next year.But if the two-term congressman, whose district currently includes all of Anne Arundel and parts of Howard and Prince George's counties, was as concerned as his constituents, he wasn't showing it."

With the political careers of some congressional lawmakers on the line, a legislative committee in Annapolis today was to take up the politically explosive chore of redrawing boundaries for Maryland's eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives.A joint committee of state delegates and senators was scheduled to hear testimony on as many as a dozen proposed maps. Tomorrow, the General Assembly is to convene in a special session to try to adopt a final plan.While lawmakers had originally hoped the issue could be decided in a day, new disagreements between the leaders of the Senate and the House of Delegates threaten to extend the session for days.

There are few college basketball observers who have the kind of historical perspective that CBS analyst Billy Packer has.Packer was one of the heady guards of coach Bones McKinney's Wake Forest teams of the early 1960s, before heading into coaching and then into broadcasting, calling Atlantic Coast Conference games in the early 1970s on the old C. D. Chesley regional network.This season will mark the 25th straight in which he will work the Final Four, first in a dynamic teaming with NBC's Dick Enberg and Al McGuire and in the last eight years with CBS' Jim Nantz.

WASHINGTON -- When armed federal agents seized records last week at a Capitol Hill health management company headed by former Rep. Tom McMillen of Maryland, it was only the latest setback to befall McMillen since he lost his congressional seat five years ago.Since 1992, McMillen has become involved in numerous business ventures, often in risky, start-up companies that have flopped or suffered other problems.And last summer, McMillen was arrested after a confrontation with a female friend.