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 LONGVIEW - Thank goodness the Miller boys picked Longview. As the Longview High Lobos prepared to play for the Class 4A Division I state championship in Waco this afternoon, some old-timers fondly recall the exploits of Richard "Dandy Dick" Miller and his brother, Hardy. The Millers led Longview to its only football state championship - on Christmas Day 1937. "Dandy Dick" scored two touchdowns that day as the Lobos defeated Wichita Falls, 19-12, before 18,000 people in Dallas' Cotton Bowl As the Longview Daily News reported the next day, "When (Miller) gets in the open, school's out." The Miller brothers had been students at Corsicana's Odd Fellows Orphans Home. In 1936, they decided to relocate to either Wichita Falls or Longview because they had relatives in both towns. Dick and Hardy enrolled at Longview High but were ineligible to play that year. When 1937 rolled around, the brothers showed up at the Lobos' first practice. Head coach P.E. "Pete" Shotwell wasn't that impressed since both youngsters were small and spindly. They really didn't look like football players. But when Dick, thanks to some great blocking by brother Hardy, scored five touchdowns in practice against the Lobo starters, Shotwell knew he'd found something special. To be sure, there were other great athletes on the 1937 team, including lineman Chal Daniels (a 1941 All-American at the University of Texas) and Don Fambrough (head coach at the University of Kansas from 1971-1982). But it was "Dandy Dick's" exploits that quickly caught the attention of fans and press. "Dick Miller was as fine a broken-field runner as I ever have seen," Shotwell said. Longview won all 10 of its 1937 regular season games, including a 13-1 victory over the popular Fort Worth Masonic Home Mighty Mites. In the playoffs, Longview beat Lufkin, Temple and Conroe to set up the Dec. 25 state championship game against Wichita Falls. Dick Miller helped Longview overcome a 12-0 first-half deficit with a 55-yard punt return and a 57-yard pass play that went for a touchdown. After winning the championship, a joyful Shotwell remarked to one of the LHS assistant coaches, "I just happen to think. What if that boy ("Dandy Dick" Miller) had gone to Wichita Falls?" Here's hoping the 2008 Lobos make some championship memories of their own today. |