Jan. 26, 2018
John Ed Miller (1963-65) was a starting guard for Vanderbilt in an era that compiled the best winning percentage in Commodore basketball history. Miller was from Union City, Tenn. and played three straight years in the TSSAA tournament held in Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym. One of his teams was the state runner-up.
Miller completed his prep career with 1,337 points and selected as an All-State performer. The highly sought-after prospect had suitors from Louisville, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Alabama and Tennessee. He chose Vanderbilt, who was coached by Roy Skinner.
“My dad, who was a basketball coach at Murray State when I born, did not like [Kentucky coach] Adolph Rupp,” Miller said recently. “He would not let me read anything that came from Kentucky. Tennessee flew a plane to the little airport in Union City to fly my dad, mom and me to UT. We had dinner with General [Bob] Neyland.
“Tennessee was not very good at that time so I narrowed it down to Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. State was the SEC champs at the time. Bailey Howell’s father wrote me a letter about attending State since Bailey played for them. Bob Polk had recruited me to Vanderbilt for three years. When it was time for me to sign Polk was gone and Roy Skinner was there. I felt more comfortable in Nashville.”
Freshmen were ineligible for varsity play in this era of college athletics. Miller played on the freshman team and learned the college game in practices with the varsity. That season the varsity was 12-12 (6-8 SEC) and led by John Russell and captain Bobby Bland.
In Miller’s sophomore season the Commodores were 16-7 (9-5 SEC) with Russell serving as captain. The Commodores defeated Tennessee twice and split with Kentucky.
“If we had the same NCAA opportunities as they have today with at-large teams we would have been in the tournament all three years,” said Miller. “Joining me were Bob ‘Snake’ Grace, Wayne Taylor, Roger Schurig and Mike Gamble. Roger was actually a year ahead of us, but took a red shirt year because he had a detached retina and ended up in our class.
“Early in the season I started a couple of games when Russell was hurt. Snake started all of them. Then I started the last five games of the year and we won all five not because of me. We won at Kentucky for the first time in 32 years, which was remarkable.
Miller played in 23 games averaging 8.1 points per game and 2.5 rebounds. He shot 69 percent (45-of-65) from the foul line.
The next season, Clyde Lee, who prepped at Nashville’s David Lipscomb, joined the varsity. Lee became just the second Vanderbilt All-American and the Commodores’ first SEC Player of the Year (1965 and 1966). He also holds the career, game and season rebounding records. Vanderbilt was 19-6 (8-6 SEC) that season.
“Clyde was battle tested his freshman year,” Miller said. “Everyday in scrimmages he had to go against Snake. Snake would block shots, elbow him and do all these things to him. Clyde was such a nice gentle person. Snake and I went, at Skinner’s request, to watch him in high school at Lipscomb.
“After watching him, we both agreed that he wasn’t very tough. And he wasn’t, but he was good. After he improved playing against Snake in his sophomore year he was an outstanding player and needed more toughness. We had the same starting lineup for two years in a row. The starting lineup was Clyde at center, Snake at the big forward, Wayne Taylor at the small forward and Roger Schurig and me at guards.”
Against Duke that season in Memorial Gymnasium, Miller scored 39 points – a career high and just one point behind Jim Henry the Commodores’ record holder at the time. Henry scored 40 points against Sewanee in 1957. Miller’s 39-point effort ranks fifth all-time in Vanderbilt history. Vanderbilt beat Duke 97-92 in overtime.
“Duke was ranked No. 2 and we were ranked No. 7,” said Miller. “It was the second most points [individual] scored in Vandy history and I was reminded that if I had hit one more shot I would have broken the record. I was actually sick that morning. I came out of my class in the engineering school feeling nauseous.
“I don’t know if I was sick or nervous about the Duke game. Some nights you go out and everything goes perfect. I was 17-of-23. The Duke center in overtime gave me what Larry Munson called on the radio a ‘forearm shiver.’ I made both free throws on the foul line for 39 points.”
Another big night that season for Miller was when No. 6 Vanderbilt beat No. 1 Kentucky 85-83 in Memorial Gymnasium. Miller’s last second jump shot was the game-winner.
“We had gotten a big lead, but Kentucky cut it down to two points,” Miller said. “Kentucky’s Larry Conley came down and shot a jumper that tied it up with six seconds to go. We called timeout. Schurig threw it to me. The plan was for me to drive while everybody backed out leaving the lane open.
“All of a sudden the Kentucky guys were in the lane. I stopped at the head of the circle and shot the jump shot. There is a classic photo of me with Charlie Ishmael who was guarding me. He was smiling because he had stopped my drive and the ball is in the net. The crowd went nuts. Every game beginning my junior season was a sellout.”
In that season, Miller was named first-team All-SEC while averaging 16.5 points per game. At the free throw line he shot 80 percent (119-of-148) that season.
In Miller’s senior year, the Commodores won the school’s first SEC championship going 24-4 (15-1 SEC) and participated in the NCAA National Tournament for the first time. Miller was team captain and named for the second time first-team All-SEC. The senior averaged 13 points in 28 games shooting 79 percent (106-of-135) from the line and 4.2 rebounds.
“It was great,” said Miller. “We beat Kentucky twice and Tennessee was our only conference loss. We should have been No.1 in the nation. We took a road trip in December where we were ranked No. 2 in the UPI poll and No. 3 in AP. We went to Virginia Tech, who was 0-5 and dedicating a new gym.
“Roger and I couldn’t hit anything and we lost by five points. That was a disaster. Then we went to Charlotte and played North Carolina and they had Billy Cunningham. We should have beaten them also, but again the guards, including me, couldn’t hit. Snake had a great game. We dropped out of the top 10 then we kept winning and winning and got back to No. 5.”
Miller was again a villain to Kentucky when they played in Nashville. Vanderbilt was leading 89-86 when the Wildcats scored a basket to bring the game to within one point. A desperation foul with 10 seconds left put Miller at the free throw line. He connected on both free throws for a 91-88 lead. Kentucky added the final basket and the Commodores were 91-90 victors. Said Miller, “There was no pressure. I just made the shots.”
There were 23 teams in the NCAA Tournament with the Commodores receiving a first round bye. In the Mideast Regional semifinal in Lexington Vanderbilt defeated DePaul 83-78 in overtime. Miller scored 16 points while Lee and Thomas added 24 and 18 points, respectively. In the other semifinal match No. 1 ranked and Big Ten champion Michigan whipped Dayton, 98-71. All-American Cazzie Russell led the Wolverines. Vanderbilt was ranked No. 5.
“We led most of the game with Michigan then Keith Thomas fouled out,” said Miller. “He was the guy guarding Cazzie and had done an absolutely excellent job guarding him. Four things happened in that game. Clyde had four fouls in the first half. He got called making the exact same moves he had made for two years, which was a drop-step.
“All of a sudden he is out of there. Then Snake got his fourth foul early in the second half. So they had to back off defensively not to foul out. Following that, Keith fouled out with about four minutes to go. Then Cazzie scored several points and of course the finale the big walk they called on me.”
The “big walk” was one of the most controversial calls in Vanderbilt basketball history. Vanderbilt went ahead 81-80 with one minute and thirty-three seconds left. Miller brought the ball down court and was called for walking. Miller had 17 points in the game while Lee scored 28 points and Thomas added 21.
So how many times in the past 53 years has Miller been asked about that call?
“About a zillion times,” said Miller. “John Bibb [Tennessean sports writer] use to bait Coach Skinner for years he would say, ‘coach, you know John Ed walked.’ Coach Skinner would just get irate and say he watched the film 50 times and I never walked.
“I went to see Bibb in the hospital before he died. He loved that story. For years every once in awhile Bibb would add to the end of his ‘Ayem’ column ‘By the way did John Ed Miller walk?’
“What did happen is two Michigan players came up from behind me and fouled me. I never moved my foot. It was right after I crossed half court. At that point we had a lead. They bumped my right and left shoulder. Then they called a walk. That was it. They won 87-85.”
Miller said that Tennessee head coach Ray Mears was in the stands pulling for the SEC. He said Mears went berserk after the call on Miller. Mears was very noticeable from the floor wearing his bright orange sports coat. If Vanderbilt had won they would have gone to the Final Four. UCLA was crowned national champs that season.
“We would have beaten UCLA,” Miller said. “The reason Michigan lost to UCLA is they couldn’t get the ball up the court. We had three guards, a mobile forward and Clyde. That is why UCLA beat Michigan. Michigan kept turning the ball over trying to get the ball up court. Of course we would have had to play Bill Bradley and Princeton first. Bradley’s third or fourth choice to play his college basketball was at Vanderbilt. We could have won that game too.”
After receiving his engineering degree from Vanderbilt, Miller worked a short time with South Central Bell then joined the Navy OCS program. He left a lieutenant in 1969 and returned to South Central Bell until his retirement. In 2013, Miller was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
Snake Grace was a very popular teammate and one of the most popular players in Vanderbilt basketball history.
Snake had sharp elbows,” laughed Miller. “This is on film somewhere. There was a guy named Mickey Gibson who played for Kentucky and was a really good ball player. When Snake would box out and go for a rebound, Mickey would put his hand on Snake’s shoulder to keep him from jumping.
“He did that about three or four times. Then all of a sudden Snake went up for a rebound and Mickey was behind pushing him. The next thing you knew Mickey was on the floor then running off holding his groin area. You could see Snake grinning when timeout was called.”
What about Coach Skinner (278-135), who retired as Vanderbilt’s all-time winningest coach but since past by Kevin Stallings (322-220)?
“He was so different from the coaches of today,” Miller said. “He designed our offenses and defenses then he let you play. He liked to run. John Russell, who was in law school was a student coach, said to me, ‘I know Bob Polk recruited you and he was so disciplined that you had to run everything exactly the way he wanted you to run it.’
“He looked at me and said, ‘John Ed, you would have hated that. That’s because we had so much freedom with coach Skinner. We knew what we needed to do. And if we needed a special play, he or Coach [Don] Knodel would call it. Outside of that, it was left up to me. I would come down the court and we’d go.
“We’d break. We’d play this defense; go out of zone into zone a man-to-man. Probably 85 to 90 percent of it was called on the court and not from the bench. We all appreciated that freedom.”
Miller is a longtime Vanderbilt season ticket holder in section E. Each year there is a three-day golf reunion for anyone associated with that 1964-65 championship team—players, coaches, managers and whoever. Also each month there is a luncheon where anybody that played Vanderbilt basketball no matter what era can attend. Said Miller, “We talk, reminisce and tell the same old lies.”
Traughber’s Tidbit: At a cost of $631,000, Vanderbilt constructed the north side balconies in Memorial Gym during the off-season between the 1965 and 1966 seasons. The balconies were proposed by Chancellor Rob Roy Purdy after Vanderbilt had sold out its 12 home games for the first time in school history before the 1964-65 season. In 1967 the south side balconies of the gym dubbed “The Balconies That Clyde Built” were completed for $700,000 in December of 1967. The addition increased the capacity to 11,000 and the new seats sold out immediately.
If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email WLTraughber@aol.com.
