Lori Miller Thurlow Inducted Into NMU Sports Hall of Fame

Courtesy: NMU Wildcats

MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University athletic department is excited to announce they will be inducting the 1981 Wildcats football team and 5 individual athletes.

Lori Miller Thurlow is one of the athletes set to be inducted this Fall.

Thurlow was raised in a prominent ski family in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. and was raised skiing at the Nor Ski Ridge in Fish Creek, Wis. Her father was the Head Coach for the Central Division Ski Team while she was in school and was the US Ski Team Assistant Coach from 1977-1982. In addition, Thurlow and her siblings were successful USSA racers for over twenty years, and during her senior year of high school she made her first US Junior Nationals.

In 1977, Lori went out to lunch with her father and it was there he told her that she was not going to a ski academy like her siblings, but was instead going to attend Northern Michigan University on a full-ride scholarship. And in the fall of 1977, she brought her talents to NMU, where she spent the following four and a half years on the Wildcat Alpine Ski Team.

In her first year at NMU, she and her teammates made the program’s first College Nationals which were held in New Mexico. That same year, Thurlow led the team in CISA Points and went to her second Junior Nationals in Sun Valley, Idaho. Thurlow continued to excel as she was given All-Mid-American honors each year she was at NMU, and upon graduation raced on the Women’s Pro Circuit in Canada and the Midwest.

Thurlow graduated from Northern Michigan University in 1981 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Communication Disorders and later earned her masters at NMU in 1984 with a Master of Arts in Communication Disorders. She went on to work for the Bangor School Department as a Speech Language Pathologist and IEP Coordinator for 36 years, and just recently retired in June of 2021. The NMU alumnus currently resides in Eddington, Maine.

Outside of work, Lori continues to ski at various mountains in Maine and New Hampshire, and enjoys hiking, kayaking, snowshoeing, reading, traveling and doing yoga. She and her husband Jeff are continuing their travels by vacationing to Iceland before returning to her favorite place in the world, Northern Michigan University.

Lori Miller Thurlow was quoted saying, “NMU afforded me the opportunity to better myself as an athlete and a student. I learned so much, especially how to make a career for myself. I have so many wonderful memories and friends/family up in Marquette. NMU was the foundation that made me an excellent athlete, friend and most of all Speech Language Pathologist. I wouldn’t change a thing and am truly honored to be selected by your committee.”

After Thurlow graduated from NMU she moved out to Maine where she met her husband Jeff whom she has been married to for 32 years. Lori and Jeff raised a son and daughter, before adopting another daughter, Aziza, from Russia in 1999.