Alvin Nugent "Bo" McMillin was an American football player and coach at the collegiate and professional level.
34 Facts About Bo McMillin
2.
Bo McMillin played college football at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he was a three-time All-American at quarterback, and led the Centre Praying Colonels to an upset victory over Harvard in 1921.
3.
Bo McMillin was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player as part of its inaugural 1951 class.
4.
Bo McMillin later returned to the NFL, coaching the Detroit Lions from 1948 to 1950 and the Philadelphia Eagles for the first two games of the 1951 season before his death.
5.
Bo McMillin was born on January 12,1895, to Reuben Thomas Bo McMillin and Martha Buchanan Reilly in Prairie Hill, Limestone County, Texas.
6.
Bo McMillin played football as a running back at North Side High School in Fort Worth and Somerset High School in Somerset, Kentucky.
7.
Bo McMillin began his collegiate career at Centre College in Kentucky.
8.
Bo McMillin was a poor student who supported himself by gambling and liked to play football.
9.
Bo McMillin was a Hall-of-Fame, three-time All-American, triple-threat quarterback on the Centre Colonels football team under head coaches Chief Myers and Charley Moran.
10.
Bo McMillin was the quarterback on Centre's all-time football team which was chosen in 1935.
11.
In Bo McMillin's day of iron man football, he was a safety man on defense and a kick returner on special teams.
12.
Bo McMillin missed the following year to serve in the United States Navy during the final year of World War I before returning to Centre.
13.
Desperate to even the score, Indiana tossed a pass which was intercepted by Bo McMillin, who returned it for a touchdown, dodging and straight arming the entire Indiana eleven.
14.
Bo McMillin had the team pray before the West Virginia game, giving the Centre College Colonels its nickname of the "Praying Colonels".
15.
In 1920, Bo McMillin received second-team All-America honors from Camp as Centre posted another successful season.
16.
Bo McMillin dodged three of Harvard's secondary on his way to the end zone.
17.
Harvard coach Bob Fisher said after the game, "In Bo McMillin, Centre has a man who is probably the hardest in the country to stop".
18.
Bo McMillin played professional football in the early days of the NFL, with the Milwaukee Badgers and the Cleveland Indians.
19.
Bo McMillin's coaching record at Geneva was 22 wins, 6 losses and 1 tie, and he is a member of the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame.
20.
Bo McMillin's teams, renowned for playing some of the best teams in college football, prided themselves on a challenging schedule.
21.
In 1928, Bo McMillin was hired by Kansas State University to replace Hall of Fame coach Charlie Bachman.
22.
Bo McMillin really knew how to give us talks that fired us up.
23.
The normal routine for Bo McMillin was to bring us out onto the field to loosen up and then take us back into the locker room for a pep talk.
24.
Bo McMillin helped improve the nondescript program to an undefeated season in 1945.
25.
Bo McMillin was successful at the annual College All-Star game, winning in 1938 and 1946 against the defending NFL champions.
26.
Indiana was reportedly at another Big Ten stadium when Bo McMillin sought entrance several hours before the game, only to find the gates locked and guarded.
27.
Bo McMillin is the last Indiana football coach to have left with a winning record.
28.
Bo McMillin accepted a five-year contract to coach the National Football League's Detroit Lions on February 19,1948.
29.
Bo McMillin then took up the challenge of returning the Philadelphia Eagles to their previous glory when he was hired on February 8,1951, succeeding Earle Neale.
30.
On March 31,1952, Bo McMillin died of a heart attack; his funeral was attended by many fellow coaches and former players.
31.
In November 1951, during the last months of his life, Bo McMillin was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for his success as a player.
32.
In 2013 Bo McMillin was posthumously inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, and he is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
33.
In 1923 a horse named Bo McMillin, owned by J Pendergast, ran in the Kentucky Derby.
34.
Bo McMillin's grandson, the son of his daughter Kathryn Jane Bubier, Craig Bo McMillin Bubier, was an All-American lacrosse player at Johns Hopkins University in 1986.