 McMillin during his stint at Indiana | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1895-01-12)January 12, 1895 Prairie Hill, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | March 31, 1952(1952-03-31) (aged 57) Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| Football | |
| 1917 | Centre |
| 1919–1921 | Centre |
| 1922–1923 | Milwaukee Badgers |
| 1923 | Cleveland Indians |
| Position | Quarterback |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1922–1924 | Centenary |
| 1925–1927 | Geneva |
| 1928–1933 | Kansas State |
| 1934–1947 | Indiana |
| 1948–1950 | Detroit Lions |
| 1951 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| Basketball | |
| 1925–1928 | Geneva |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1946–1947 | Indiana |
| 1948–1951 | Detroit Lions (GM) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 140–77–13 (college football) 14–24 (NFL) 26–28 (college basketball) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Football 2LIAA (1922–1923) 3Tri-State (1925–1927) Big Ten (1945) | |
| Awards | |
Football
| |
| College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 1951 (profile) | |
Alvin Nugent "Bo"McMillin (January 12, 1895 – March 31, 1952) was an Americanfootball player and coach at the collegiate and professional level. He playedcollege football atCentre College inDanville, Kentucky, where he was a three-timeAll-American atquarterback, and led theCentre Praying Colonels to anupset victory overHarvard in 1921. McMillin was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame as a player as part of its inaugural 1951 class.
McMillin was the head football coach atCentenary College of Louisiana (1922–1924),Geneva College (1925–1927),Kansas State University (1928–1933) andIndiana University (1934–1947), compiling a career college football coaching record of 140–77–13. In 1945, he led Indiana to its firstBig Ten Conference title and was namedAFCA Coach of the Year.
After graduating from Centre, McMillin played professionally with theMilwaukee Badgers andCleveland Indians—two earlyNational Football League (NFL) teams—in 1922 and 1923. He later returned to the NFL, coaching theDetroit Lions from 1948 to 1950 and thePhiladelphia Eagles for the first two games of the 1951 season before his death. McMillin's career NFL coaching mark was 14–24.
McMillin was born on January 12, 1895, to Reuben Thomas McMillin and Martha Buchanan Reilly inPrairie Hill, Limestone County, Texas. The family moved in 1897 toWaco and in 1901 toFort Worth.[1] McMillin's father was a meat packer.[1] As a child, Bo was known to pick fights,[2] but was also known all his life as one who neverdrunk norsmoked norswore.[3] He spoke with a distinctive Texas drawl.[4] He was anIrish Catholic.[5]
He played football as arunning back atNorth Side High School in Fort Worth and Somerset High School inSomerset, Kentucky. At North Side, he played withRed Weaver and was coached byRobert L. (Chief) Myers.Sully Montgomery,Matty Bell,Bill James and Bob Mathias also attended North Side.[6] By the ninth grade, McMillin had reached his full growth at 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) and 165 pounds (75 kg).[1]
Myers obtained the coaching job at hisalma mater, Centre College, and brought all the above-named players with him. McMillin and Weaver did not have sufficient high-school credits to enter college and enrolled at Somerset High School for the 1916-17 year, playing withRed Roberts.[7] "I've got a boy under my wing down here in Texas who's a football-playing fool and I want him to go to Centre. I'd like for you to get him in a high school up there, and away from hispool-playing pals in Texas." wrote Myers to a man in Somerset.[8]
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McMillin began his collegiate career atCentre College inKentucky. McMillin was a poor student who supported himself bygambling[1] and liked to play football.[3] McMillin failed all his courses during his senior year, eventually receiving hisA.B. degree from Centre in 1937 with credit for military service and courses taken after he left the college.[9] According to McMillin, he initially left Centre with $3,500 in debt.[10]
He was a Hall-of-Fame, three-timeAll-American,triple-threat quarterback on theCentre Colonels football team under head coaches Chief Myers andCharley Moran. McMillin was the quarterback on Centre's all-time football team which was chosen in 1935.[11] He was nominated for the Associated Press All-Time Southeast 1869-1919-era team.[12] In McMillin's day ofiron man football, he was also asafety man on defense and akick returner on special teams.[13]
He began playing football at Centre in1917, making an impact as a freshman when his 17-yarddrop kick defeated the rivalKentucky Wildcats 3–0 (his onlyfield goal).[14] During his freshman year, McMillin was also on thetrack team; on April 27, 1917, he won the220-yard dash at a Centre interscholastic track meet.
He missed the following year to serve in theUnited States Navy during the final year ofWorld War I before returning to Centre.[15]
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In1919, McMillin was selected to theWalter Camp All-America first-team at quarterback after helping the Praying Colonels to a perfect 9–0 record (includingupsets ofIndiana andWest Virginia).[16] Centre had been down 3–0 to Indiana for most of the game, scoring a touchdown to lead 6–3 with just over a minute left.[17] Desperate to even the score, Indiana tossed a pass which wasintercepted by McMillin, who returned it for a touchdown, dodging andstraight arming the entire Indiana eleven.[17] McMillin had the team pray before the West Virginia game, giving the Centre College Colonels its nickname of the "Praying Colonels".[18][19] The 1919 team was selected for anational championship by MIT statisticianJeff Sagarin.[20]
In1920, McMillin received second-team All-America honors from Camp as Centre posted another successful season.[21] However, the season did include a disappointing 31–14 loss to defending national championHarvard. With the Harvard game tied 7–7, it was 4th down and 6 at the 30-yard line. Instead ofpunting, McMillin "defied every "don't" in the football book" and tossed atouchdown pass.[22]
McMillin also had his only loss to a team from the South, toGeorgia Tech by a 20–0 score. Tech tackleBill Fincher reportedly tried to knock McMillin out of the game withbrass knuckles or "something equally diabolical."[23] Before the game, Fincher said "You're a great player Bo...I feel awful sorry about it because you are not going to be in there very long—about three minutes."[24] TheAtlanta Constitution reported, "McMillin'sforward passes outdid anything of the kind seen here in many years, but Tech seemed to know where they were going".[25] According to one writer, "Even the great "Bo" McMillin was powerless against the Tech players".[26]
1921 was an exceptional season for McMillin and Centre College. He was a consensus All-American, with an extraordinary October 29,effort against Harvard. After losing the year before, McMillin had promised that Centre would beat Harvard in 1921 (despite the Crimson's undefeated record since 1918). Before 43,000 fans, McMillin dashed 32 yards for the lone touchdown in a 6–0 Centre victory which ended Harvard's 25-game winning streak. Fullback Red Roberts told him, "It's time to score—ride my hump".[27] McMillin dodged three of Harvard'ssecondary on his way to theend zone.[28] Harvard coachBob Fisher said after the game, "In Bo McMillin, Centre has a man who is probably the hardest in the country to stop".[29]
MIT students who attended the game to cheer against Harvardtore down the goalposts and hoisted him on their shoulders and for decades afterward, it was known as "football's upset of the century".[30]Tulane coachClark Shaughnessy later wrote that the win "first awoke the nation to the possibilities of Southern football."[31] Students painted the "impossibleformula" of C6H0 around Danville,[32] and the campus post office has a last vestige of the graffiti on its side.[33] On the return celebration in Danville on Monday,GovernorEdwin P. Morrow remarked "I'd rather be Bo McMillin this moment than the Governor of Kentucky."[34]
The week before, Centre had defeatedTransylvania 98–0 in a game whereSpalding's Football Guide reported that McMillin ran back akickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.[13] The season ended with a 14–22 upset loss toTexas A&M in theDixie Classic, when Texas A&M's12th-man tradition originated.[35] McMillin blamed himself for the loss.[36] The day before the game, McMillin got married.[37]
In an attempt to nameHeisman Trophy winners retroactively before 1936, theNational Football Foundation selected him as its 1921 recipient.[38]
McMillin played professional football in the early days of the NFL, with the Milwaukee Badgers and the Cleveland Indians. McMillin could only play on certain weeks when the team he was coaching traveled North. The Badgers had to mail him the plays and signals the week before, pay him in advance, and he never had any practice with the team.[39]
Building upon his success as a player, McMillin became a coach and spent the next quarter-century compiling a 146–77–13 record. McMillin's "tactical contributions" were "both negligible," the five manbackfield and the "cockeyedT."[40][n 1]
Preferring a small school,[42] McMillin began atCentenary College of Louisiana in 1922. Over a three-year period, he lost only three of 28 games, and won twoLouisiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles.[43]
McMillin's success in Louisiana allowed him to move on toGeneva College inBeaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where he was the school's 13th head football coach for three seasons (1925–1927). His coaching record at Geneva was 22 wins, 6 losses and 1 tie, and he is a member of the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame.[44] Geneva College fans generally consider McMillin among the best coaches in school history.[45] His teams, renowned for playing some of the best teams in college football, prided themselves on a challenging schedule.[46] Geneva opened the 1926 season with a 16–7 upset ofHarvard.[47]
Former Centre playerSwede Anderson followed McMillin to Centenary and Geneva.Mack Flenniken also followed coach McMillin, as well asCal Hubbard, the only person inducted into thePro Football andBaseball Halls of Fame and Centenary's first All-American, at both schools.[48]Georgia Tech coachBill Alexander once watched Centenary when it was inAtlanta to playOglethorpe. "Bo, this Oglethorpe bunch has fast backs, but the line is light and green. If you turn that Hubbard loose, he might kill some of them. Have Cal 'hurt his knee', why don't you, and let him sit on the bench?"[49]
In 1928, McMillin was hired byKansas State University to replace Hall of Fame coachCharlie Bachman. He coached successfully at Kansas State for six years, including an 8–2 season in1931, which after a 5–0 start andRose Bowl aspirations had the Wildcats suffer close losses to Iowa State andNebraska.[50][51][n 2] In his final season at the helm in1933, Kansas State "had an unexpectedly fine season," including an upset ofOklahoma.[53]
Elden Auker (McMillin's all-conference quarterback at Kansas State) wrote in his book,Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms, "McMillin was a great psychologist. He really knew how to give us talks that fired us up ... The normal routine for McMillin was to bring us out onto the field to loosen up and then take us back into the locker room for a pep talk. By the time he was through talking, we believed we could take on the world".[54]
McMillin's success at Kansas State propelled him into his most noteworthy achievements, coaching atIndiana University for 14 years, beginning in1934. He helped improve the nondescript program to an undefeated season in1945.[55][n 3] That year was the first in which the Hoosiers won theBig Nine Conference and the school's only outright conference title. McMillin received the Coach of the Year Award. "I haven't seenBlanchard," said McMillin at the award ceremony's dinner, "but until I do, I'll settle forPete Pihos any time."[57]
McMillin was successful at the annual College All-Star game, winning in 1938 and 1946 against the defending NFL champions.[58]
Indiana was reportedly at another Big Ten stadium when McMillin sought entrance several hours before the game, only to find the gates locked and guarded. He coaxed the guards to open one gate so they could discuss the problem and announced, "This is the Indiana football team. We've been marching around this place long enough, and, suh, we are not wearying ourselves before we get our suits on".[59] He is the last Indiana football coach to have left with a winning record.
Despite becoming the school's athletic director and earning apparent lifetime security, with seven years remaining on his most-recent contract the 53-year-old McMillin sought new challenges after the 1947 season.[60] He accepted a five-year contract to coach theNational Football League'sDetroit Lions on February 19, 1948.[61]
McMillin's coaching success disappeared with the Lions as the team dropped its first five games in 1948 and finished with a 2–10 record. In addition to many on-field changes, he briefly changed the team's colors from the familiar Hawaiian blue to maroon (similar to the color worn by his Indiana teams).[62]
The Lions also struggled in 1949, with a 4–8 record, but picked up the rights to future starDoak Walker and brought in quarterbackBobby Layne andHeisman Trophy winnerLeon Hart the following year.[63] Continued conflict with players led to McMillin's departure after the end of the1950 NFL season,[1] which saw the Lions finish with a 6–6 record.[64]
He then took up the challenge of returning thePhiladelphia Eagles to their previous glory when he was hired on February 8, 1951, succeedingEarle (Greasy) Neale.[4][65] After two games, both victories, McMillin underwent surgery for what was thought to be stomach ulcers. The findings were far worse:stomach cancer, which ended his coaching career. On March 31, 1952, McMillin died of a heart attack; his funeral was attended by many fellow coaches and former players.[59]
In November 1951, during the last months of his life, McMillin was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame for his success as a player. Two months later, he received theAmos Alonzo Stagg Award from theAmerican Football Coaches Association for his contributions to the sport. In 2013 McMillin was posthumously inducted into theKentucky Athletic Hall of Fame,[66] and he is also a member of theLouisiana Sports Hall of Fame[67] and theTexas Sports Hall of Fame.[1]
In 1923 a horse named Bo McMillin, owned by J. Pendergast, ran in theKentucky Derby. At odds of 12–1, the horse (ridden by D. Connelly) finished 12th in the 21-horse field.[68]
McMillin's grandson, the son of his daughter Kathryn Jane Bubier, Craig McMillin Bubier, was anAll-Americanlacrosse player atJohns Hopkins University in 1986.[69][70] The next season, Bubier's senior year, was capped by Bubier scoring the winning goal to secure his thirdnational championship.[71] His championship streak continued in the1990 World Games.[72]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | AP# | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centenary Gentlemen(Louisiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association)(1922–1924) | |||||||||
| 1922 | Centenary | 8–1 | 1st | ||||||
| 1923 | Centenary | 10–1 | 1st | ||||||
| 1924 | Centenary | 8–1 | |||||||
| Centenary: | 26–3 | ||||||||
| Geneva Covenanters(Tri-State Conference)(1925–1927) | |||||||||
| 1925 | Geneva | 6–3 | 5–0 | 1st | |||||
| 1926 | Geneva | 8–2 | 4–0 | 1st | |||||
| 1927 | Geneva | 8–0–1 | 4–0 | 1st | |||||
| Geneva: | 22–5–1 | 13–0 | |||||||
| Kansas State Wildcats(Big Six Conference)(1928–1933) | |||||||||
| 1928 | Kansas State | 3–5 | 0–5 | 6th | |||||
| 1929 | Kansas State | 3–5 | 3–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1930 | Kansas State | 5–3 | 3–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1931 | Kansas State | 8–2 | 3–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1932 | Kansas State | 4–4 | 2–3 | 4th | |||||
| 1933 | Kansas State | 6–2–1 | 4–1 | 2nd | |||||
| Kansas State: | 29–21–1 | 15–15 | |||||||
| Indiana Hoosiers(Big Ten Conference)(1934–1947) | |||||||||
| 1934 | Indiana | 3–3–2 | 1–3–1 | T–8th | |||||
| 1935 | Indiana | 4–3–1 | 2–2–1 | T–3rd | |||||
| 1936 | Indiana | 5–2–1 | 3–1–1 | T–4th | |||||
| 1937 | Indiana | 5–3 | 3–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1938 | Indiana | 1–6–1 | 1–4 | 9th | |||||
| 1939 | Indiana | 2–4–2 | 2–3 | 8th | |||||
| 1940 | Indiana | 3–5 | 2–3 | T–6th | |||||
| 1941 | Indiana | 2–6 | 1–3 | T–7th | |||||
| 1942 | Indiana | 7–3 | 2–2 | T–5th | |||||
| 1943 | Indiana | 4–4–2 | 2–3–1 | 4th | |||||
| 1944 | Indiana | 7–3 | 4–3 | 5th | |||||
| 1945 | Indiana | 9–0–1 | 5–0–1 | 1st | 4 | ||||
| 1946 | Indiana | 6–3 | 4–2 | 3rd | 20 | ||||
| 1947 | Indiana | 5–3–1 | 2–3–1 | T–6th | |||||
| Indiana: | 63–48–11 | 34–34–6 | |||||||
| Total: | 140–77–13 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Team | Year | Regular Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | ||
| DET | 1948 | 2 | 10 | 0 | .167 | 5th inNFL Western |
| DET | 1949 | 4 | 8 | 0 | .333 | 4th in NFL Western |
| DET | 1950 | 6 | 6 | 0 | .500 | 4th in NFL National |
| DET Total | 12 | 24 | 0 | .333 | ||
| PHI | 1951 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 5th in NFL American |
| PHI Total | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | ||
| Total[73] | 14 | 24 | 0 | .368 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |