Even still, Smith said Brown-Miller was humble. When it came time to reveal the final roster, Brown-Miller assumed she had not made it and was packing up her belongings, prepared to return to Michigan from Lake Placid, New York, that very night. The idea was laughable to Smith when he heard about it afterwards.

“If Brownie is not on this team there’s almost no reason to have a team because she’s the epitome of a team player.” Smith said. “She wasn’t a flashy player or a superstar-type, but she was an ingredient we had to have.”

Smith said that Brown-Miller’s commitment and tenacity while also looking to put a spotlight on the team instead of herself made her somebody the players could rely on. On a team of players still in their collegiate years, Brown-Miller also fulfilled the role of an additional coach, Smith said.

In the high-pressure environment leading up to everyone’s first Olympic experience, Smith said he and his staff asked a lot of players both physically and mentally. By virtue of her work ethic, drive and will to win, Brown-Miller set a standard for the team that drove them to be better. 

“She never wavered. She knew exactly the price that had to be paid and paid it, and her teammates rallied behind that and followed her,” Smith said. “And if the others didn’t meet her there, they wouldn’t have been able to look her in the eye.”

Bailey said that the team naturally looked up to Brown-Miller by virtue of her age — at 31, she was the oldest player on the roster — and her national team experience. Fiery and fierce on the ice, Brown-Miller was the kind of player that led by example and pushed her peers to be better, said U.S. teammate Cammi Granato. No one wanted to disappoint Brown-Miller, she said. Brown-Miller’s will to win drove the team.

“Lisa set the tone in terms of what level we were going to compete or participate,” Bailey said. “If she was sick or injured or not with us for a practice or gym session, we noticed. She was the fabric of that group. That was a team filled with a lot of high-performing people cut from a similar cloth and she still stood out and was a role model. She always brought the team up a notch.”

Never the loudest person in the room, Brown-Miller most often led by example, said Smith. When she did speak, the team really listened, said Granato. 

“She talked when she had something to say, and it was always meaningful,” Granato said. “Everyone respected her with the way she conducted herself and the way she worked and her personality.”

The word former teammates and coaches used most often to describe Brown-Miller was “gritty.”

She was a battler and tough as nails. She outworked and outskated the best players in the world. She hated to lose, even during drills in practice.

Granato remembers endless circles of skating drills from blue line to blue line where no matter how hard everyone else on the team skated and focused on it, they couldn’t catch or outskate Brown-Miller. 

“She made all of us better. She was the ultimate teammate,” said U.S. and Providence teammate Cindy Curley. “I don’t think anyone who ever played with her could honestly say that they didn’t hustle a little more and try a little harder in the corners because of Lisa. She was all about the grit and the determination. It made you a better player, practicing against her every day. An opponent is going to fight every step of the way for the puck and that’s how Lisa was. She never gave up. She just knew where to be. She had great hockey sense. She was just a once-in-a-lifetime, smart hockey player.”

If only for her perseverance, skill and success, Brown-Miller would be remembered as a legend of American women’s hockey. But to only look at how she performed on the ice and in the weight room only paints part of the picture of what made her such a special member of Team USA. 

Brown-Miller was just as fierce off the ice in her support and care for her friends and teammates, said Curley. When it came to anything other than hockey, Brown-Miller was the kindest and softest person Curley knew. 

“Off the ice, she would give anything to anyone,” Curley said. “She was an outstanding person. She was kind and caring and giving. But on the ice, she wasn’t giving anyone anything.”

That dichotomy — the ability to go full steam on the ice and be a caretaker for the other players off it — is what Curley said makes Brown-Miller such a role model. 

Brown-Miller was decades ahead of her time in that way. 

“In those days, leadership tended to be autocratic. We didn’t necessarily see empathy or self-awareness as primary goals of leadership,” Bailey said. “Today there’s a much more holistic, high empathy and emotional intelligence approach. The things we look for in leaders of business or sports today, Lisa was already doing almost 30 years ago. She was a high-performance athlete that set a tone of humility, empathy and self-awareness.”

Granato remembers Brown-Miller’s humor, saying that she can still close her eyes and hear Brown-Miller’s unique and infectious laugh.

“She had a great laugh and a great smile,” Granato said. “When she laughed it would make everyone else laugh. She had a sly smile and then she’d giggle, and it just spread through the room.”

She was also an attentive listener who was fully engaged with the people she spoke to, said Bailey. If Brown-Miller asked about a teammate’s mood or well-being, she really meant it and genuinely wanted to know the answer.

“What I want people to know and remember about Lisa is that yes, her work ethic was unmatched, and she set the tone, but just as importantly, she was selfless in the most competitive environment you could ever find yourself in,” said Bailey. 

Brown-Miller was unselfish without sacrificing her competitiveness. She had the ability to turn the aggression on when it came to competition but then channel that passion differently when it came to interpersonal relationships off the ice, said Curley. She showed her teammates how to be the best player and the best human being — to be difficult and pesky and unbeatable on the ice, but funny and warm off it. 

Brown-Miller didn’t just set the tone for the 1998 gold-medal winning Olympic team, but she set a template for the work ethic required for U.S. women’s hockey players to have success. Her influence will continue to echo throughout the game thanks to the impact she had on everyone around her. 

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Charles Barkley might not like seeing college athletes get paid as much as they are, but he used to be the one giving them money.

Barkley attended the Regions Pro-Am in Birmingham, Alabama Wednesday, and prior to the golf tournament, he joined Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic on their Jox 94.5 morning show. During the interview, Barkley spoke about college sports and NIL donations, where he admitted to giving his alma mater, Auburn University a lot of money for their athletic programs. But NIL seems to have caused Barkley to reach his limit.

“I’ve given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than any athlete in the history of the school,” Barkley told McElroy and Cubelic. “There’s not a single person in the world who’s given more money to Auburn, legal or illegal, than me, but the notion that I’m going to come up with a couple million dollars every year so that we can be good at basketball and football, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

It’s not surprising to hear Charles Barkley has given money to Auburn illegally, he all but admitted to it more than a decade ago. In 2014, Seth Davis posed a hypothetical situation to Barkley, asking if he would go against NCAA rules by giving Auburn $100,000 to land a top recruit. Barkley’s answer was simple, “Sure, I would do it.” And he defended his answer by saying NCAA rules are “so unfair.”


Barkley has been one of the biggest critics of NIL in recent years, regularly claiming it’s not a sustainable model, while calling on college athletes to put more money on the value of a free education. NIL is not perfect and it’s not for the better of college sports, but it is for the better of the college athlete. Athletes who, for decades, were taken advantage of by the NCAA, particularly in college basketball and football.

Charles Barkley shouldn’t have to spend more money on Auburn athletics now that it’s legal to do so. But his criticisms of NIL do sound a little hypocritical when he admits to bankrolling Auburn’s rosters in the past.

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Mizzou chapter.

The University of Missouri’s gymnastics team made history on April 17 when they made it to the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history. So what has their season looked like, and how did they make it to the Final Four?

The team started off ranked #9 in the nation, according to the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association after their preseason performance. This is the second time the team has been ranked in the top 10 coming into the season since 2023. 

The Tigers started their season off strong with a win over Ball State, Illinois State and Southeast Missouri State. On January 3, the team was victorious after a final score of 196.700 out of 200.000 to put them above their competitors. The Denver Quad was held on January 12 where the Tigers took second place, falling behind Denver with a final score of 196.125. It seemed like the Tigers were stuck in the 197s for the rest of the season with lots of wins but also having losses along the way. 

But then, on March 9, the Missouri Tigers made history and scored their first ever 198.000 in program history against Auburn. Missouri had been leading Auburn all day but the final floor routine by senior Amari Celestine is what pushed the Tigers to 198.100. Moore tied her season best with a 9.950 out of 10.000 on floor to end their senior night. 

The Auburn meet also led to one more first in program history: being undefeated at home. Mizzou had a 6-0 win streak at the Hearnes Center beating Ball State, Illinois State, SEMO, Kentucky, Georgia and Auburn. After their match against Auburn, the Tigers moved up in the NCAA polls to #7, the highest they’ve ever been ranked during the regular season. It was clear to see that this team was a force to be reckoned with. 

The Missouri Tigers took fourth place at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama for the SEC Championship. With a total of 197.400, they clenched yet another school record, their best conference championship score; they surpassed Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama. The Tigers also had four podium finishers. Mara Titarsolej scored her first 10 of the season, third of her career, to claim SEC co-champion on the bars. Helen Hu also took first place as the SEC co-champion for the beam with a score of 9.925. Jocelyn Moore and Kennedy Griffin both scored 9.950s on floor, earning them silver medals. 

On April 2, the Tigers took first in the NCAA Championship Second Round, knocking out Georgia and Arizona State with a score of 197.650. While this was their fifth straight year going to the regional final, it was also their best postseason score in program history. Helen Hu scored a unanimous 10 on beam from the judges, landing her the title of the first ever 10 in NCAA meet history. Amari Celestine also scored a 10 from one of the judges on her vault, which led her score to be a 9.950; she won session one’s all-around title with an almost perfect score of 39.450. 

The NCAA Championship Regional Final came next where the Tigers got their ticket to Fort Worth, Texas. Ending the meet in second place behind Oklahoma with a total of 197.425, Missouri claimed their spot in the semifinals, their third time going in program history. Going into their last apparatus, they were battling with Auburn for the second place title, but Hu was able to score a 9.925 to push the Missouri Tigers ahead of Auburn.

In the semifinals the Tigers were competing against #3 Florida, #11 Alabama and #2 Oklahoma in the first session. It had been a close meet but once again Missouri was able to pull ahead on beam, their anchor, Helen Hu, did it again and secured a 9.9875. The Missouri Tigers would move into the second place spot, beating out Florida by one-tenth of a point, sending them to their first ever NCAA Championship Final.

The Championship was nothing short of exciting to watch. All four teams were doing amazing, but Oklahoma and UCLA had been fighting for that top spot. With Missouri hanging out in fourth place for most of the meet, they were able to pull ahead on the floor. Kennedy Griffin scored a 9.9500, the highest for the Tigers on floor, followed by Amari Celestine’s 9.9125 and Jocelyn Moore’s 9.9000. Finishing third in the NCAA Gymnastics Championship, the Tigers finished off their record-breaking season ending in not only the highest spot in program history but also securing the title of the best postseason performance from any women’s team at Mizzou. 

U.S. and UCLA gymnast Jordan Chiles is a two-time Olympian and three-time NCAA individual champion.

She looks completely comfortable in her own skin as she’s performing a floor routine to music by empowering artists like Beyoncé and proudly displaying the more than 20 “amazing art pieces” she has tattooed on her body.

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For much of Chiles’ life, however, the body that helped propel her to athletic greatness made her feel “ugly” and self-conscious. But when she first saw photos of herself as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, “I literally started bawling my eyes out,” Chiles recently told People magazine.

Chiles said her mother, Gina, reacted similarly.

“My mom actually cried a few times from some of the photos because she’s been there literally every single moment of my life,” Chiles said, “so I think it was more of her realizing how beautiful her daughter is and what I’ve gone through.

“She was there when I would cry and be like, ‘Mom, they’re saying this. They’re saying that.’ Or I would look at myself in the mirror and call myself ugly almost every day. I think it was just really cool for her to know that I get this opportunity and that I get the ability to embrace who Jordan is.”

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Chiles was a member of the U.S. Olympic squads that won team silver at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and team gold at the Paris Games last summer. Chiles was also awarded her first individual Olympic medal, a bronze in the floor exercise, in Paris but it was taken away because of a technicality.

Read more: Jordan Chiles continues to fight for her Olympic bronze medal while leading UCLA gymnastics

At UCLA, Chiles won two national titles in the uneven bars (2023, 2025) and one on the floor (2023). She also finished second in the all-around competition in 2023 and helped the Bruins to a second-place overall finish this year. Chiles has already announced she will return to Westwood next year for her senior season.

When the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue hits newsstands on Saturday, Chiles will be one of four models appearing on her own cover (Olivia Dunne, Salma Hayek Pinault and Lauren Chan are the others). As opposed to how she felt looking at her own reflection years ago, Chiles said she is “in awe” after seeing herself on the front of the iconic magazine.

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“I’ve embraced every single aspect of who I am and I’ve embraced the amazing body that I have,” Chiles said.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.