Alvin Nugent "Bo" McMillin was born on January 12, 1895, in Prairie Hill, Texas. He was the son of Reuben Thomas and Matilda Riley McMillin. At an early age, he was dubbed "Bo" by a cousin, and he carried this nickname throughout his life.
His father, a worker in a meat-packing firm, moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, where he died when McMillin was sixteen.
McMillin attended North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas and later Somerset High School (Kentucky). He enrolled at Centre College, a small Presbyterian school located in Danville, Kentucky.
While there, he played at the quarterback position. His studies would be interrupted by his service in the United States Navy during World War I.
McMillin became a star player, and in 1916, when Meyers returned to his alma mater, Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, he took with him McMillin and several other players from Fort Worth. McMillin's matriculation at Centre was delayed for a year while he earned the necessary credits at Somerset High School. Centre, a Presbyterian men's college, had slightly more than 200 students, yet its 1917 team, with McMillin as the quarterback, lost only one game.
Because the war forced a shortened schedule in 1918, the players received another year of eligibility. In 1919 Centre came to national prominence in football with a 9-0 record and the naming of McMillin and two teammates James "Red" Weaver and James M. "Red" Roberts to Walter Camp's All-American team.
As a result, in 1920 Harvard University scheduled a game with the "Praying Colonels, " as the Centre team was popularly known because of its pregame prayers in the locker room. Although Harvard won, Centre impressed sportswriters by holding its heavier opponent throughout the first half.
The defining moment of McMillin's collegiate football career was a game in 1921 when he scored the only touchdown in a 6 to 0 upset victory over Harvard. McMillin emerged from this game a folk hero, the champion of the common man against the Ivy League elite. He announced that Centre would return to Cambridge the next year and win.
Thus the stage was set on October 29, 1921, for what the New York Times still hailed a half-century later as "football's upset of the century. " Harvard had not been defeated since 1916. Before nearly 50, 000 fans, on a muddy field in Harvard Stadium, the first half was scoreless. In the third quarter, McMillin ran thirty-two yards for the game's only score. This victory fixed the name of Bo McMillin in American football history.
In 1921, Ralph D. Paine published First Down, Kentucky, a biographical novel based on McMillin's rise to fame. A devout Irish Catholic who did not drink, smoke, or swear, McMillin nevertheless was reputed to have supported himself in college by rolling dice and betting on Centre to win, often by large scores.
Although he failed to pass a single course in his senior year, by the end of the football season he had signed a contract to coach at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, for a salary high enough to shock the major universities of the South. In his three years at Centenary, McMillin brought national attention to the college, achieving a 25-3 record.
His contract was not renewed, however, because the regional accrediting association objected to the college's paying a coach more than the president and faculty members. McMillin accepted another highly paid coaching position at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and took with him four of his best players, including Robert "Cal" Hubbard, who later achieved fame as a professional football player and baseball umpire.
During the 1925-1927 seasons at Geneva, McMillin again lifted a small college to football prominence, including a victory over Harvard in 1926. From 1928 through 1933, McMillin coached at Kansas State College in Manhattan, Kansas. Although at Kansas State McMillin barely managed a winning record while playing a difficult schedule, his reputation grew as a dynamic coach who could inspire players.
In 1934, he accepted an offer from Indiana University. In his fourteen seasons at Indiana, McMillin's teams won sixty-three games, lost forty-eight, and tied eleven, a gratifying achievement for a school that had not enjoyed a winning season since 1920.
Personal difficulties with some of the owners and the dislike of his coaching methods by some players led to his dismissal at the end of the 1950 season. He was quickly signed as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles but had to retire in October 1951, when he underwent an operation for cancer.
He returned to Bloomington, Indiana, where he died.
Repeated victories over arch-rival Purdue and, in 1945, Indiana's first conference championship brought McMillin a lifetime contract from the university and repeated honors from the coaching profession. Twice (1938 and 1946), he coached the collegiate team to victory over the professional champions in the annual All-Star charity game in Chicago. His popularity as a speaker matched his success as a coach and provided him a large additional income. In 1937, Centre awarded him an A. B. degree, for which he had qualified by taking university courses and by receiving academic credit for his World War I training. In 1948 the Detroit Lions attracted McMillin into the National Football League with a lucrative contract as coach and general manager. From 1948 to 1950 he built the Lion team that won three professional championships in the next four years. In November 1951, during the last months of his life, McMillin was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for his success as a player. Two months later, he received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association for his contributions to the sport. In 2013, McMillin was posthumously inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, and he is also a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
In 1921, McMillin married his Texas sweetheart, Marie Miers. After being a widower with a young daughter for four years, in 1930, he married Kathryn Gillihan; they had four children.
1 August 1855 - 20 November 1911
15 January 1857 - 30 May 1921
1893 - 1983
11 February 1892 - 31 May 1955
4 May 1886 - 21 June 1955
19 March 1883 - 31 December 1919
9 September 1898 - 17 December 1994
1879 - 1947
17 July 1909 - 9 October 1987
21 October 1894 - 21 March 1926
