Colorado State University Athletics
Veteran's Day feature: The Green Beret Ram
11/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 10, 2011
By John Hirn
ColoradoAggies.com
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Over the last 100 years, there have been many CSU athletes that have gone on to distinguished military careers. As a land-grant institution the school has produced individuals that have been trained while in college for a career in all branches of the U.S. military.
Among those have been several that were athletes for the Aggies and Rams before they went on to a military career. In few cases, mostly after World War II, there were war veterans that came to CSU after their time in the service to become student-athletes. One Vietnam veteran stands out as a war hero who went on to become a football hero among Ram fans in the early 1970s, and remains a legend today.
Willie Miller arrived on the CSU campus in 1971 after five and-a-half years of service in the Army and two tours of duty in Vietnam with the Special Forces. His military career was largely downplayed while he attended CSU. The only facts most people knew about him were that he won the Silver Star in Vietnam, and at the age of 24 he was the oldest player on the team.
Miller’s football career was nothing short of amazing while wearing the green and gold on the field of Hughes Stadium. During his three years on the varsity squad, Miller broke every receiving record in football and set records in the Western Athletic Conference and the NCAA.
The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame named him Athlete of the Year in 1974, he was an honorable mention for All-America in 1974, and in January of 1975 the school and city of Fort Collins honored him with Willie Miller Day, which included being mayor for a day.
He was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the 12th round of the 1975 NFL draft and went on to a prosperous pro career with the Browns and Los Angeles Rams. However, his military career continued to be downplayed for the most part, mostly because Miller himself did not want to be reminded of the horrors of war.
The best information about Miller’s military career comes from an Aug. 17, 1975, article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, written by Hal Lebovitz. Lebovitz, a longtime sportswriter in Cleveland who died in 2005, featured the newest Cleveland Browns player and oldest rookie in the NFL. Along with his playing career, Lebovitz dug deeper into Willie Miller’s military career than anybody had before.
Miller came out of an Alabama high school in 1965 with plenty of athletic talent, but felt he needed direction in his life.
“The truth is,” Miller said in the 1975 article, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I had to try to find myself – to see what kind of person I really was.”
He felt that the military could help guide him and he joined with the U.S. Army Special Forces. While preparing for combat, Miller learned weapons training, parachute jumping, mountain climbing and communications, along with other tactics.
After being trained as a Green Beret, Miller served two tours of duty in Vietnam and won the Silver Star, Soldier’s Medal and Purple Heart. Although Miller did not always speak about his service in Vietnam, Lebovitz was able to obtain the official Department of Defense records stating the heroics that won him the Silver Star; the third-highest combat medal in the U.S. military.
Lebovitz wrote of the official records, “Miller’s platoon sergeant was wounded and exposed to further enemy fire. By exposing himself to more enemy fire and eliminating some of the opposition, Willie Miller retrieved his platoon sergeant and administered first aid.”
Asked to elaborate on the action he took on the battlefield, Miller declined.
“I want to put it out of my mind,” he told Levovitz. “You don’t like to talk about killing.”
Miller also received what was described as a “flesh wound” during the conflict. A sniper’s bullet hit him in the thigh, but according the Lebovitz story the fragment was dug out of Miller’s leg quickly and he went on fighting.
The pains of war continued to plague Miller into his NFL career. He stated in 1975 he still had nightmares.
“Anybody who doesn’t have them over such events is either a fool or a liar,” the wide receiver said. “I don’t care how many years have passed.”
Miller’s memories of the war came out in the interview and showed why he continued to have those painful times on his mind.
“I know there were a lot of times I should have been dead. Thank God I wasn’t. Was I under fire a lot? Yep, you can say that.”
Following his two tours of duty in Vietnam, Miller returned to the United States and was released six months early from active duty. He decided that he wanted to go to college and receive an education. Grambling State University offered him a scholarship to play football before his discharge.
While stationed in El Paso, Texas, Miller attended a football game and the Miners happened to be playing Colorado State. By chance, Miller spoke to the CSU coaches and after a visit to the campus he was offered a scholarship to play for the Rams in Fort Collins.
Miller is the last war hero to play football at CSU following his military career. Although a Veteran of the war against terror walked on briefly in 2010, there have not been many chances for war veterans to play for the green and gold. But no question, Miller is one of the greatest war heroes to be a football hero at CSU.