Photo courtesy of the NC State Athletic Communications Department

RALEIGH, NC – The William Peace University community mourns the loss of Peace College Alumna and former women's basketball legend Faye Young Miller, Class of 1976, after a battle with cancer. Adding to this tragedy is the loss comes only five years after Faye lost her twin sister and fellow ballplayer, Kaye Young Cowher '76.

Raised in a blue-collar setting, Faye and Kaye were so athletically talented that former President Emeritus Dr. S. David Frazier, and Nora Lynn Finch, current senior associate commissioner for women's basketball at the Atlantic Coast Conference, recruited the sisters from high school to play women's basketball at Peace, which was then a two-year school. After graduating with her A.A. degree, Faye and her sister transferred to North Carolina State University.

Faye would go on to be a standout player at NCSU as a two-time letter-winner under legendary Wolfpack coach Kay Yow. Miller was the team leader in free throw percentage during the 1976-77 season, and in 1977-78, served as a co-captain of the third-ranked Wolfpack. She also helped lead the women's club to a 29-5 overall record and a perfect 9-0 mark in ACC games. Following her successful collegiate career, Faye played in the Women's Professional Basketball League for one season with the New York Stars and two seasons with the New Jersey Gems.

Faye and Kaye played together at NC State and professionally. They were a set of twins in the old Doublemint gum commercials and famously featured in the following Dannon Yogurt commercial from 1980.  



At the end of her professional basketball career, Faye became the head coach at Manhattan College for two seasons. Miller then went onto serve as a women's basketball color commentator for ESPN from 1983-88, and spent one season as an assistant coach at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado.

Agnus Berenato, the University of Pittsburgh's women's basketball coach who knew Faye in the early days of Title IX when she was one of the first women to play college basketball on a scholarship in North Carolina, was a rival of Faye and her sister Kaye. Berenato and her sisters played for the University of North Carolina against the twins. After Faye's turn at Fairview HS, Faye became Berenato's assistant coach for five seasons while she was at Georgia Tech as the women's basketball team head coach.

Young then moved to the Northeast to coach at Ithaca High School, work as a varsity official, and work as a volunteer assistant at Cornell. In addition to her professional career as a basketball coach, Miller was also the author of Winning Basketball for Girls.

After beating stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to the lung, Faye was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor in May. She lost her battle on September 23, 2015.

Faye is survived by her husband Matthew, son Samuel, and daughter Chaney.