Oct. 2, 2012
John Ed Miller did not see Tuesday unfolding the way it did. To his knowledge, the former Vanderbilt men’s basketball player was going to Vanderbilt Legends Club to eat lunch and meet with friends.
Well, he did go to Vanderbilt Legends Club, but eating lunch and visiting with friends was not the main reason why he was there.
Upon arriving at Legends Club, Miller found himself in attendance at the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon. He assumingly would listen to former NewsChannel 5 sports director Hope Hines unveil the 2013 inductees into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and then eat with others there for the announcement.
Hines read through the list of inductees, recognizing those in attendance and those not in attendance. Before closing, Hines made one final announcement that there were two additional inductees who were at the luncheon, but were unaware of their induction.
The first unsuspecting recipient was Belmont men’s basketball coach Rick Byrd and the second was Miller.
“It is quite an honor. I was surprised. I came out here for what I thought was lunch and here I am,” a near speechless Miller said shortly after the announcement.
Miller was recognized as the hall of fame’s Lifetime Achievement recipient which was the result of a tremendous basketball career, a tenure in the U.S. Navy and 35 years working at Southern Bell/South Central Bell/BellSouth.
Miller was informed by a friend that he was being nominated for the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, but he did not believe he would make it or that the selections had even been made. “I knew I had been nominated, but they said they hadn’t voted yet, so I didn’t have any idea that I would be a part of this today.”
Born in Murray, Ky., and raised in Union City, Tenn., Miller turned down numerous scholarship offers from other schools to attend Vanderbilt, where he starred from 1963-65. As a guard for the Commodores, Miller earned All-SEC honors in 1964 and 1965. In 1965, Miller captained Vanderbilt to the school’s first SEC Championship and eventually helped the team reach the Elite 8.
Miller’s most memorable games came against Kentucky. In 1964, Miller’s jumper with two seconds to play buried the No. 1-ranked Wildcats. In 1965, Miller beat the Wildcats again when he sank two game-winning free throws with 10 seconds to play.
“We always loved to play Kentucky and we were very fortunate to beat them more than they beat us while I was playing,” Miller recalled.
Miller’s high-scoring game came against No. 3 Duke in 1963 when he scored 39 points to help the Commodores to an overtime victory.
“You’d hear people say that sometimes the bucket looks really big and sometimes it looks really small,” Miller said. “That night, it seemed that everything would go in.”
Miller will be formally inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame on May 3rd.
Also inducted on Tuesday was former Vanderbilt play-by-play man Bob Bell. Bell called Vanderbilt basketball games for nearly a decade and voiced the Vanderbilt football replays for WKRN. Bell was inducted posthumously.
The entire list of inductees is below.
Ermal G. Allen (Posthumous)
Bob Bell (Posthumous)
Ricky Byrd
Dr. Chris Jones
Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway
Kelly Holcomb
Leonard Hamilton
John Ed Miller
Larry Seivers
Trey Teague
Frank Wycheck
