NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Shortly before Vanderbilt welcomed second-ranked Duke to Memorial Gymnasium for a men’s basketball showdown in 1963, Commodore head coach Roy Skinner lamented to The Hustler that he didn’t have anyone who could match Blue Devils All-American Jeff Mullins and “go out and get 30 points.” He was correct. But in John Ed Miller, it turned out he had someone who could go out and get 39 points in what the newspaper called “the greatest single-game performance ever seen in Memorial Gymnasium.”
To be fair, Memorial was barely a decade old at the time, but Miller and the teams he helped lead did much to build the lore that fuels Memorial Magic to this day.
Playing alongside Hall of Famer Clyde Lee, Miller was captain and point guard on the 1964–65 juggernaut that went 24-4 and won Vanderbilt’s first SEC regular season championship en route to its first Elite Eight appearance. Only a controversial travelling call in the closing seconds of the Elite Eight game against Michigan denied the Commodores a trip to the Final Four and a potential meeting with John Wooden’s mighty UCLA for the national title.
With the 1963 game against Duke as just one example, Miller was at his best in the biggest moments—often in Memorial. He led Union City to the state high school tournament finals, then played at Vanderbilt, before he ever took the court for the Commodores. As a Vanderbilt sophomore, less than a month after beating Duke, he hit what the Associated Press described as a 30-footer at the buzzer to beat second-ranked Kentucky.
Miller’s heroics that season are all the more remarkable considering those were two of the first 12 varsity games he played (freshmen were then ineligible for varsity games).
A year later, by then team captain, Miller’s late free throws defeated Kentucky at Memorial to sweep the season series from Adolph Rupp’s mighty Wildcats. That win came just three days after Vanderbilt’s first and ultimately only SEC setback. With only the conference champion eligible for the NCAA Tournament, Vanderbilt defeated DePaul in overtime in the Sweet 16 before the 87-85 heartbreaker against Michigan.
In all, the Commodores amassed a 59-17 record in Miller’s three varsity seasons. At the time, that represented the best three-year stretch in school history.
In the same Hustler edition that reported Skinner’s scoring concerns ahead of the game against Duke, another story discussed significantly expanding Memorial’s seating capacity by adding the balcony areas now such an important part of the venue’s unique layout. Vice Chancellor Rob Ray Purdy suggested the school would consider the addition only if fan support continued to grow.
“It will take more than one successful season to justify as much money as the balconies will cost,” Skinner told the paper. “My job is to see that the teams keep improving. I would like to see them build the balconies.”
The fans kept coming. The wins that followed in Miller’s wake helped. But the Memorial Magic he created mattered most.
