Leon "Chief" Miller-- pre-NFL pro Started by Mark L. Ford

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Leon "Chief" Miller-- pre-NFL pro
Started by Mark L. Ford, Mar 07 2014 10:19 AM

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3 replies to this topic

#1 Mark L. Ford
Administrators
Posted 07 March 2014 - 10:19 AM
We had a question from the general public about Leon "Chief" Miller, who is in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame (as is NFL legend Jim Brown). Miller had been a teammate of Jim Thorpe at Carlisle, and although he's not on the register of players who played on an NFL team, it's possible that he might have been on the pre-1920 Canton Bulldogs. The question came from someone who played lacrosse at CCNY for Coach Miller, and asked about whether Miller was on any team rosters. Thanks in advance to any of our PFRA experts.

#2 Bob Gill
PFRA Member
Posted 07 March 2014 - 10:24 AM
I have several Millers on various rosters in 1915, '16 and '17, but none listed as Leon. However, two or three of them are just last names, so any of them COULD be Leon. That's all I can say, though.

#3 Mark L. Ford
Posted 07 March 2014 - 12:34 PM
Thanks, Bob-- Miller would have had a good reason not to play pro football, since he was planning to make his career as a college coach. I've read, though I've never seen a study on the subject, that there were plenty of athletic directors who would refuse to hire anyone who had squandered his amateur status by accepting pay-for-play for any sport. Thorpe, of course, had already lost his halo, so I imagine that his friends would have been especially cautious. There's a bit of irony if that was the policy for CCNY.

#4 oldecapecod 11
PFRA Member
Posted 07 March 2014 - 01:25 PM
Ford
Today, 11:34 AM
"... a bit of irony..."

Irony indeed!
A couple a decades later CCNY would have to get down from its high horse for something far worse than turning away an applicant who had played for pay.
The ramifications of its point-shaving scandal reached far beyond the canyons of the Apple and rattled some cages as far as Peoria and Louisville.
It might have been the first and only scandal to penalize a building?