Madeline Leavitt
Sports Editor
Achieving childhood dreams is not common nature, especially in the world of athletics. But Jerry Miller took his childhood dream and made it a reality as he is closing out his 30th year as a play-by-play broadcaster for ISU athletics. He estimates that he has broadcasted 1,965 games.
Growing up on a farm near Rexburg, he would listen to his transistor radio. Miller would fall asleep at night to AM radio stations all over the country, listening to legends such as former Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play broadcaster Vin Scully, which transformed Miller into a Dodgers fan.
“I listened to all of these different announcers and knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Miller said.
But the moment that solidified Miller’s decision to become a sportscaster came during his high school years. Miller was working as a team manager for his high school basketball team during his senior year. His school had just received a video camera and Miller was put in charge of recording the games. While he was recording, he decided he was going to broadcast the game as well. The next Monday, the basketball coach stopped him and told him that his play-by-play was as good as the guys on the radio.
That was all Miller needed to hear.
After high school, Miller would work high school basketball games out of St. Anthony until he decided to go back to school. He attended BYU-Provo where he would help with the production of its basketball games.
In order to earn some extra money during college, he would drive anywhere from 30-80 miles to broadcast high school games for a radio station in Delta, Utah.
After graduation, Miller continued an internship with KSL out of Salt Lake City. His internship was ending in March, but they gave him one more month to work the high school basketball tournament. He would call in a report at the end of every quarter of every game.
After hearing his play-by-play, KSL kept him as an overnight News Editor, and eventually hoped to give him the Sports Editor position.
During this time, the New Orleans Jazz became the Utah Jazz and they picked KSL to be their radio station. One of Miller’s childhood heroes, Rodney Clark ‘Hot Rod’ Hundley, was on the broadcast team and Miller eventually became Hundley’s producer.
When the season started, Hundley worked with CBS, calling the NBA’s Game of the Week. But the Jazz needed someone to do their games while he was gone, so Miller auditioned.
“Post-game, the assistant general manager came up to me and asked to listen to my tape right then and there,” Miller said. “He stood and listened for about 90 seconds and I thought ‘oh crap’ but he said, ‘sounds great, you’re the guy.’”
Miller did 14 games with the Jazz and after four years at KSL, Miller came back to Idaho to work for KISU and call ISU games.
One ISU moment that Miller will never forget is the 1992 ISU vs. Boise State Globe of Death game.
Miller recalls that ISU was down against BSU and he looked over at the BSU announcers who looked excited to beat ISU once again. With about 1:30 left to play, BSU scored a touchdown. They kicked it off, but the guy who caught the kickoff ran to about the 15-yard line. His teammates ran to him and they got in a circle, huddled and after a couple seconds, the circle exploded where six guys came out of the huddle with a fake hold on the ball, running in different directions.
Nobody knew who had the ball and all of a sudden on the far sideline, Miller saw Robert Johnson running up near midfield and ISU scored a touchdown with about 12 seconds left. Holt Arena went wild.
But the hardest part of the job for Miller is the post-game interviews. He tries to not rely on clichés, but he has to talk about what happened in the game. He says it is especially hard if it is a heartbreaking or embarrassing loss.
“I have had a coach during a commercial take off the headphones and slam them on the table,” Miller said. “And the coach said, ‘you God damn reporters ask all of the same God damn questions.’ He turned around and walked out.”
Even through the good and the bad years at ISU, Miller loves what he does. He wants to work as long as he can in broadcasting. He believes he will achieve game 2,000 during the basketball season next year.
“I don’t want to be the guy who people are listening and say he needs to retire,” he said. “I want to do this as long as I am still good at it.”
