ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996 TAG: 9612180038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
Bob Miller, the ``Emory Express'' who rewrote the Emory & Henry College football record book, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 66.
Miller, born in Portage, Pa., and a longtime resident of Tazewell, was a three-time selection to the Associated Press Little All-America team at halfback (1949-51). As the main cog of coach Conley Snidow's split option and spread offense, Miller led the Wasps to two Tangerine Bowls and two Burley Bowls (1949-50). In the 1949 Burley Bowl played before 12,000 spectators in J ohnson City, Tenn., Emory & Henry met undefeated Hanover (Ind.). Hanover had given up 33 points all season. Miller scored 32 in the first half of a 32-0 Wasps victory.
Miller still holds 10 Emory & Henry records. He was in attendance in Bristol in 1986 when Wasps All-American Sandy Rogers broke his career rushing record of 3,636 yards. Friends asked Miller if he was upset to lose the record.
``I had it 40 years,'' he responded. ``I carried it long enough.''
Miller held three national small-college career records and one season record when he graduated in 1952.
Miller's national scoring record of 63 career touchdowns stood from 1951 to 1992, when it was broken by Shawn Graves of Wofford (72). Miller's record of 5,851 career all-purpose yards stood for 21 years until it was broken by Hobart's Dan Aleksiewicz (6,063).
After graduating, Miller coached high school football in Emporia and Tazewell. He later had great success in business and real estate in the Tazewell area. Approximately 40 former Wasps players were among the attendees at his funeral Monday in Tazewell.
Miller was on his way to Florida State, where he had accepted a football scholarship, when he stopped in Emory in the fall of 1948 to see a brother who was a student at Emory & Henry. Before Miller could resume his trip to Florida, he was intercepted by Snidow, a former player at Roanoke College who was coaching the Wasps.
``Snidow talked him into staying,'' said Miller's friend, Ed Wheeler, a Roanoke businessman. ``That was the best thing to ever happen to Emory & Henry.''
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB