Chuck Mills
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Chuck Mills, a native of Chicago served as head football coach at seven collegiate institutions including Utah State University, Wake Forest University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pomona College, Southern Oregon University, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Mills was also an assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs the year of the first Super Bowl in 1967. He also has high school and junior college coaching stints and was a consultant to the Hawaiian Islanders of the Arena2 football league 2004 and 2005. Mills also wrote a newspaper column for twenty plus years and a book, "The Fifth Down" published.
Mills is regarded as the "father of modern Japanese football," after bringing the first U.S. college football to play Japanese collegiate players in 1971. (Utah State). And has been close to Nihon football ever since. The Japanese version of the Hiesman Trophy is called the Mills Cup.
His Utah State football teams, (1967-72) was highly successful, receiving top twenty ranking in 1972; though the over-all won-loss record at Wake Forest was dismal, Mills managed to have the only Wake team to have two consecutive non-losing ACC records in the ACC up to that time. In 1976 he was second in the balloting for ACC Coach of the Year. In 1977 an unexpected and disappointing season led to his departure. Mills' teams seven times qualified for post-season play and he earned conference, regional and national coach of year laurels seven times.
In 2006, a reunion took place in Las Vegas, NV that included players from all the colleges he head coached over twenty-seven years. Over 170 players tuned out. Mills is reputed to have hired the first black assistant coach in major college football in 1968 and the first in the ACC in 1973. His reputation holds that he was respectful towards players and staff. He always remarked as a coach, "we are working with someone's child." As a former player stated, "we're on his teams for a few years and he is on ours a lifetime."
Mills was honored with membership in the All-American Football Foundation as both a coach and athletic administrator, (twenty years as a collegiate athletic director). He also received the highest award the U.S. Coast Guard and bestow upon a civilian, the Superior Achievement Award, for athletic administration and coaching. The 1997 Coast Guard football team, coached by Mills, won the conference championship, top small college team in the east and qualified for NCAA post-season play, and the most regular season wins the academy ever had. In February, 2008, Mills will be inducted into the Utah State Sports Hall of Fame.
Chuck's Notable Quotes:
- "When it comes to football, God is prejudiced - toward big, fast kids."
- "My halftime speeches always went a great deal better when I had better players than the othe guy.
- "Football is for the insane or the stupid, and I am quite sane."
- "Do what you did and you'll get what you got."
- "Some pray for wisdom, my widom comes in praying for big, fast players."
- "Kiss the fat lady on the lips when she sings."
- "There are three important things in life: Family and football."
| Preceded by Tom Harper |
Wake Forest University Head American Football Coaches 1973- 1977 |
Succeeded by John Mackovic |
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