Jerry Miller
Bengal Adviser
Homecoming– it’s not just for those that can actually come home but for those that have lived here, added to the legacy and may not be able to come back.
Homecoming and athletics at most schools are inexorably connected.
I may not know a lot about homecoming, so forgive me if I now divert this column into a conversation about Idaho State University athletics.
I do feel particularly qualified to write about Idaho State University sports and it’s not just because I’m now in my 27th year of broadcasting Bengal sports on the radio.
As a born-and-bred eastern Idaho farm boy, I started paying attention to the Bengals in the late 1960s when Jerry Dunne was tossing touchdown passes to Ed “The Flea” Bell. I was in high school then, and Ed Cavanaugh was ISU’s coach. The Bengals never won much back then either, but they were sure setting statistical records.
Sound familiar?
In 1977 I remember watching ISU beat John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins in the NCAA basketball tournament to advance to the “Elite Eight,” something unheard of for a school like ISU in today’s college basketball world. Heck, it was unheard of then, too.
I started announcing ISU games in 1982, the year after the Bengals won the football national championship (great timing, right?) and in my 26 off-and-on-again years as the Voice of the Bengals, I’ve broadcast more ISU games than you might imagine.
In 19 years of wearing the mic during football games, I’ve called over 220 ISU contests, and only seen 50 wins.
In Big Sky conference games my record is 28-111.
I’ve also announced over 530 men’s basketball games and only called wins in 204.
In league games my record is 111-151.
Now some of you might say we should fire the announcer instead of the coaches but in my defense, I also called ISU women’s basketball for eight seasons with an overall record of 110-104, 73-45 in Big Sky play and I took the team to five postseason appearances, two in the NCAA Tournament and three Women’s NIT tourneys!
Of course, I haven’t taken ISU teams anywhere…they’ve taken me along for so many great rides and I’ve loved every minute of it, except for the untold hundreds of hours sitting in airport terminals and on airport runways (those are stories for other times)!
I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of broadcasting ISU women’s volleyball, soccer and softball contests, often for very successful programs.
During all those years I’ve worked with at least seven different athletic directors, six football and six men’s basketball head coaches, three women’s basketball coaches, three soccer coaches, two softball coaches and four different volleyball coaches.
I’ve also worked dozens and dozens of assistant coaches in those years, including Marvin Lewis (head coach of the NFL Cincinnati Bengals), Kyle Whittingham (head football coach at the University of Utah), Dave Anderson (head football coach at Wisconsin), Dirk Koetter (offensive coordinator for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons) and many, many more who have built remarkably successful careers.
But the icing on the cake has been the opportunity to work with the hundreds and hundreds of student athletes that wear Bengal Orange and Black.
I so very much want to start listing names but I know that in the end I would leave someone out that I should mention.
Everybody knows about Merril Hoge, Jared Allen, Josh Hill and Evan Dietrich-Smith, the last three all still playing in the NFL, but many don’t know about Gino Mariani, the wildly successful football coach at Pocatello’s Highland High School that came here to play quarterback for ISU, or about former Bengals like Jim Koetter, Don Neves, Scott Berger, Ned Bell, Mark Echohawk, Nic Edgson, Mike Calley, Dane Simmons, Jason Whitmer, Clete Edmundsen, Corky Federico, Jim Nielsen, Wayne Hill, Ryan Hall, Jim Potter, Ron Boone, Corey Bruce, Gordon Bean, Bruce Gaitor, Tom Skahill and Scott Marchand, who have all made amazing contributions to their communities after leaving ISU.
Among them you’ll find husbands and fathers, educators, coaches, physicians, engineers, attorneys, CEOs, business owners and even a police chief.
On the women’s side there’s also a list of amazing athletes who have come through ISU that are making great contributions both here and in the communities they live in now, like Christa Brossman, Natalie Doma, Nancy Espeseth, Michelle Grohs, Karissa Henage, Stacey Peterson, Kristi Parrish, Debbie Shively, Jaclyn Hone, Katie Zigars and the unforgettable Olympic Gold Medalist Stacey Dragila.
They are wives and moms, radiologists, accountants, coaches, physicians, nurses, counselors, teachers and even a former prison warden.
I guess my point is that it’s so easy to focus on the wins and losses and say athletics at ISU really must not be worth it, but you would be so very, very wrong if that’s all you do.
From all of my years of experience, I feel very comfortable in saying that athletics at ISU is on the right track.
We have coaches who still believe in the term “student athlete.”
We have a football and men’s basketball coach who have been hired to rebuild their programs, and to date I think they’ve gone about it in exactly the right ways.
What’s happening inside the football program is remarkable. The same in basketball. Strong roots are being planted. Coach Kramer and Coach Evans would love nothing more than to each retire here, with wildly successful programs and legacies created, like all the other coaches are doing.
I can honestly say that across the board, I don’t think ISU athletics has ever been staffed as well as it is today.
Coaches are graduating quality young people who begin contributing immediately to their communities.
Will there be disappointments and black eyes? Sure, it’s inevitable, but don’t lose sight of the long range vision.
ISU Athletics isn’t about making it into pro sports. When you stop and ponder, it really is about Homecoming, and all the lives and efforts spent creating legacies and loyalties to Idaho State University.
I didn’t attend ISU, but I’m a Bengal through-and-through. GO BENGALS!
