Alvin "Bo" McMillin

Sport: Football

Induction Year: 1964

University: Centenary

Induction Year: 1964

At a banquet before the November 15, 1924, football game between Centenary College and Boston College, rival coaches Alvin Nugent “Bo” McMillin of Centenary and Frank Cavanaugh of Boston College were the principal speakers.

McMillin had been lured to Shreveport, La., 2 1/2 years earlier when a group of Shreveport businessmen underwrote a campaign to bring big-time football to Centenary. His salary of $8,000 a year—an astronomical figure at that time—was paid by the businessmen. His players called “Bo’s Pros” by some skeptics, included Cal Hubbard from Missouri, Bard “Mexico” Farrell from Colorado and Jim Weaver (who later became commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference) from North Carolina. But McMillin ignored those demographics when he addressed the Boston gathering.

“We’re just a bunch of poor little country boys, all born and brought up within kthe shadow of the main building at Centenary,” he said.

Cavanaugh, the “Iron Major” who had been seriously wounded in World War I, didn’t let that one slip by.

“I have heard of and seen some architectural wonders,” he said. “The Woolworth Building in New York. The Parthenon in Athens. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Taj Mahal. The Eiffel Tower in Paris.  But none of these could conceivably that Bo has been describing. Just imagine a building so tall that it can cast its shadow all the way from Louisiana as far westward as Colordo, as far northward as Missouri, and as far eastward as the Atlantic Ocean. That is ome shadow!”

Centenary scored a 10-9 upset victory over Cavanaugh’s Eagles the following day—the Gents’ most impressive performance in McMillin’s three seasons as head coach.

McMillin, who grew up in Fort Worth, became a national celebrity in college football when his 31-yard touchdown run gave the “Praying Colonels” of tiny Centre College a 6-0 victory over Harvard in 1921. It was Harvard’s first loss in five years.

In McMillin’s three years at Centenary, Teams anchored by Hubbard, a giant lineman who would be a charter member of the pro football Hall of Fame, posted a 26-3 record.

The Gents weren’t playing a steady diet of heavyweights yet, but they shut out Matty Bell’s Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 23-0 in 1923. that game, the first loss in Bell’s 23 season as a head coach at three Southwest Conference schools, was arranged because McMillin and Bell were teammates at North Side High in Fort Worth and Centre College. In fact, it was their high school coach, Robert L. “Chief” Myers, who sent both of them to the Danville, Ky., school.

Nobody accused McMillin of taking it easy on his old buddies. A week after he drilled Bell’s Horned Frogs, former Centre teammate Ed Diddle—who became a legendary basketball coach at Western Kentucky—brought his Western Kentucky football team to Shreveport.

Diddle’s first problem on the trip was retrieving all the silverware his players stole from the train dining car so the squad could eat breakfast the following morning. Then McMillin’s team gave them a 75-6 thrashing. When the coaches met at midfield, McMillin said, “You don’t know the first thing about coaching.”

“Well, you just kicked my butt,” replied Diddle. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“The first thing,” McMillin confided, “is to get some good players.”

Laura Bishop, who taught McMillin in both elementary school and high school in Fort Worth, later joined the Centenary faculty and contacted McMillin about the coaching job. “Can you beat the offer of $7,00 of Dallas University?” he said. They could. He also wanted a three-year contract. No problem. He wanted to augment his salary by as much as $3,000 a year playing pro games and exhibitions. No Problem.

He wasn’t the highest-paid coach in America, but an $8,000 salary (with fringe benefits boosting the total package to $11,000) was a great way for a 27-year-old to start his coaching career in 1922.

McMillin gave his Shreveport supporters their money’s worth, but Centenary did no renew his contract because Dr. George Sexton was seeking accreditation and the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools took a dim view of salary. Hubbard had only 32 credits in his three years at Centenary, barely enough to be considered a sophomore, and professors complained about players missing classes on long trips.

McMillin was no Rhodes Scholar. He was 21 years old when he ran out of Texas high school eligibility, so he moved to Kentucky and led Somerset High to the state finals. He was still a half-credit short of graduation from high school a year later, entering Centre College with a conditional admission. He started his coaching career without a degree. But later, to set a good example for his players, he completed his college work and earned the degree.

When McMillin left Centenary for Geneva (Pa.) College in 1925, Hubbard followed him.

McMillin later coached at Indiana for 14 years, directing the Hoosiers to win their first Big Ten championship in 1945. Then he moved into the National Football League, coaching the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles.

His 26-year total for college coaching stints at Centenary, Geneva, Kansas State and Indiana was 140 victories, 77 losses and 13 ties for a winning percentage of .637.

McMillin’s coaching career ended with frustration and tragedy in the NFL. After two losing seasons as head coach of the Detroit Lions (2-10 in 1948, 4-8 in 1949), he took over the coaching reins of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1951. The Eagles, led by former LSU star Steve Van Buren, won their first two games. Then McMillin abruptly resigned revealing that he had stomach cancer. He died seven months later.