By: Tim Flynn
The 2023 Mines Athletics Auction and Hall of Fame will take place Sept. 30 at Lockridge Arena. Tickets are now on sale at minesathletics.com/auction, and check minesathletics.com all week long for the announcement of the Harry D. Campbell Oredigger Hall of Fame Class of 2023!
A three-sport star in the 1970s for Mines football, soccer, and track & field and an Olympian for the United States in soccer, Mike Flater stands as one of the Orediggers' most accomplished multi-sport athletes.
A record-breaking kicker for the Mines football program, Flater still holds the Mines and RMAC records for longest field goal in a game at 62 yards against Western Colorado in 1973, which at the time was also the NCAA record. He would go on to be a two-time First-Team All-RMAC selection and a Football News First-Team All-American before being drafted in the fifth round of the 1974 NFL draft by Washington.
Flater's other fall sport would prove to be his professional calling, though, as his soccer exploits with the Orediggers led to a successful pro and international career. An All-American at Mines in leading to the Orediggers to the 1970 NCAA tournament, Flater was selected to the 1972 United States Olympic team while still in school (the first American soccer team to qualify for the Games), and he remains the last Mines student-athlete to be an Olympian after competing in the Munich games. Flater would go on to earn 15 caps for the senior national team in the mid-1970s. Professionally, Flater would sign with the NASL's Denver Dynamos in 1975 and go to play for the Minnesota Kicks, Oakland Stompers, and Portland Timbers over the next five seasons, scoring 31 goals in 71 matches.
Flater was also a member of the Mines track & field program, breaking the school long jump record that had stood for more than 30 years at 21' 11" - a mark that would remain in the Mines all-time top 10 until recent years.
Flater was previously honored by the Hall of Fame in 1997 in the Historic Event category for his record field goal. He earned a degree in mathematics from Mines in 1974.
