This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.
The most obvious choices for No. 31:
= Mike Piazza: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Cheryl Miller: Riverside Poly High basketball, USC women’s basketball
= Ed O’Bannon: UCLA basketball
= Reggie Miller: UCLA basketball
= Kurt Rambis: Los Angeles Lakers
= Dean Chance: Los Angeles/California Angels
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 31:
= Carnell Lake, UCLA football
= Karch Kiraly: UCLA volleyball
= Spencer Hayward: Los Angeles Lakers
= Guy Hebert: Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
= Swen Nater: UCLA basketball
= Chuck Finley: California/Anaheim Angels
= Jason Collins: Harvard-Westlake High School basketball
= Joe Grahovac: Fullerton College basketball
The most interesting story for No. 31:
Cheryl Miller: USC women’s basketball (1981-82 to 1985-86) via Riverside Poly High
Reggie Miller: UCLA basketball (1983-84 to 1986-87) via Riverside Poly High
Southern California map pinpoints:
Riverside; Westwood (UCLA); downtown L.A. (USC)
During the 2005 season, rumors percolated that Reggie Miller was ready to retire from the NBA after a hot-shot, 18-year run, all of them with the Indiana Pacers. He was coming up on 40 years old. It made sense.
TNT reporter Cheryl Miller denied the story was true.
She was even a bit adamant about it as she told her broadcasting partner on air to cease and desist with reporting such inaccurate information. Besides, if anyone should know, would be her.
Two weeks later, during a Lakers-Pistons telecast, Cheryl Miller reported on TNT that Reggie Miller would, in fact, be retiring. Reggie had told his coach, Rick Carlisle, first. Then he gave the scoop to Cheryl.
Proving again: Older sisters protect younger brothers, no matter what their age or their eventual Basketball Hall of Fame status.
For both of them.
Reggie Miller – aka Uncle Reg, The Knick Killer, Killa, Funk and Mighty Mouth, as they are listed on his BaseballReference.org biography – was born 19 months after his sister Cheryl. They were the last two of the five kids from Saul and Carrie Miller at their Riverside home. Included in that was oldest son, Darrel, a catcher for the California Angels (who wore No. 32, 1984 to 1988).
As basketball players, Cheryl was the bigger deal even if, at 6-foot-2, she was at least five inches shorter than pencil-thin Reggie in their adult lives.
It was Cheryl who once scored 105 points in a 32-minute game in 1982 for Riverside Poly High – the same night Reggie scored 40 in a game for the boy’s varsity team. Guess who got the bigger headlines?
In leading Poly to a 132-4 record, averaging 37.5 points a game, Cheryl was also said to be the first female player to dunk in a game. She was the national High School Player of the Year. As a junior and senior.
She picked USC to continue her play, a place making a name for itself with the McGee twins on the front line. USC won a national title her freshman year — the Trojans were 31-2. And in her sophomore year — the Trojans were 29-4. She took a detour to win a gold medal for US basketball in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and won the Naismith Player of the Year Award three times.
There’s little argument, even today, she is among the most dominant players in women’s basketball history. In October of 2025, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the women’s basketball poll, The Associated Press assembled a list of the greatest players since the first poll in 1976. Without ranking them, Miller was included on the AP first team with Caitlin Clark, Diana Taurasi, Brenna Stewart and Candace Parker.
“I grew up watching Cheryl Miller play,” said Chicago native Parker, who ended up a star with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “She’d be No. 1. My dad was like ‘This is who we wanted you to be.’ I’m honored to be on this list with her.”
In March of 2020, HBO Sports created a documentary celebrating Miller, and it included NBA analyst Doris Burke exclaiming: “She was a bad … mother … fucker.” (Even if our story in the L.A. Times misconstrued that quote).
That nickname is not on any of Cheryl Miller’s internet biography stats pages. It should be.
Continue reading “No. 31: Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller”
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