CONWAY — Ernie Miller of Conway readily admits he’s a “track nut,” so his role as president of the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame fits nicely.
“I kind of live and die by track on a yearly basis,” said Miller, 75.
With the organization’s upcoming induction banquet, he will be in heaven.
The ATFHF will induct its 24th class during a 6:30 p.m. banquet Friday in the Silver City Ballroom of the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock.
All of the inductees are connected to Arkansas as track and field athletes, coaches, officials or contributors.
“This year’s class ranks among the best we have inducted, based solely on athletic achievement,” Miller said. “All seven of the inductees had exceptional careers.”
The class includes three Olympians: Michael Tinsley, silver medalist in the 2012 Olympics in the 400-meter hurdles; the late Niall O’Shaughnessy, John McDonnell’s first Irish recruit who laid the foundation for the Razorbacks’ distance corps and ultimate domination and represented Ireland in the 1976 Olympics in the 800 and 1,500 meters; and Christin Wurth-Thomas, the former Razorback runner who was on the U.S. Olympic team in 2008 for the 1,500.
Others to be inducted include former Razorback high jumper Bill Jasinski and former UA sprinter John Register, each of whom qualified for and competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials; Kenneth Davis, one of the best sprinters in University of Central Arkansas history; and Ross Bolding, who had an exceptional career as a USA Track and Field Masters-level runner for more than 40 years.
Register suffered a career-ending training accident that resulted in the loss of his left leg, but rather than giving up, he became a member of the U.S. Paralympic Team as a swimmer, and later as a runner and jumper, winning the silver medal in the long jump at the 2000 World Games in Sydney, Australia. His jump is an American record, and he is one of just two men in the world without a leg or knee to jump over 17 feet, 8 inches.
“We’ve got a varied type of class,” said Miller, a former college sprinter and a longtime junior high and high school track coach and a 2009 ATFHF inductee. “Sometimes there’s a lot of coaches, and sometimes it’s mostly athletes, but this year, it’s not just one or the other.
“I think it will be appealing to the public. There’s a lot of name recognition. Most people are going to know about Michael Tinsley. Anybody who knows anything about track in Arkansas is going to know Niall O’Shaughnessy and what he meant to the University of Arkansas program, as far as putting it on the map.”
Miller grew up in Little Rock, graduating from Fuller High School before coming in 1960 to what is now the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, where he ran track for the late beloved coach Raymond Bright. Miller’s specialties were the sprints and relays.
“The highlights of my college career were winning four [Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference] championships in a row,” Miller said. “We had some really good people on our team, like Gerald Cound, Johnny Simmons, Bobby Richardson, Wilbur Owen.”
Several of those are Hall of Fame inductees.
“[The Bears] had won a lot in the mid-1950s and had a down year in 1959, and when we came in, it all clicked,” Miller said. “We had a lot of good depth and a lot of good athletes. We pretty much dominated.”
He said 1961 was a turning point for the sport in the state.
“It was a watershed year in terms of how it changed track in Arkansas,” he said. “It made the other colleges start to realize they needed to change to keep up with UCA.”
He credited Bright, a 1998 ATFHF inductee, for much of the success.
“He was ahead of the curve,” Miller said. “I picked up on his philosophy — he believed in training hard and emphasizing track.”
Miller and his teammates set three Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference records (440- and 880-yard and the sprint medley relays) and was a member of the 440 relay that placed in the NAIA national meets in 1961 and ’63.
After earning his physical education degree in 1964, Miller coached for a year at Wynne before returning to Conway in ’65 as junior high track and assistant high school football coach. He became the Wampus Cat head track coach in 1967 before taking the football job in ’72.
While at Conway, he led the junior high squad to the 1966 state championship and the high school squad to a couple of state runner-up finishes. According to angelfire.com, Miller served as a volunteer coach at the University of Arkansas while working on his Ed.D. in health, physical education and recreation. His dissertation research focused on whether track performance in female distance runners could be improved by increasing the hemoglobin level in the blood.
After earning his doctorate, Miller went into school-equipment sales before retiring in 2010.
Despite leaving athletics professionally, track has been a constant for Miller. He operated the Central Arkansas Track Club for five years and continues to serve as an official for college
and high school meets.
“I think track honed my competitive edge,” Miller said. “I got out of the coaching and went into sales, and sales is just like coaching — you go in and try to win an order, press for that. It’s competition, so if you’ve done that in track, in my opinion, you’re more likely to be successful in life in competitive-type things.”
Miller joined the ATFHF Board of Directors in 2010 and is in his third year as president of the organization. Despite the growth of other high school sports such as baseball, softball and soccer, Miller said track and field remained one of the most popular sports in the United States.
“It’s you against the clock, you against the height,” he said. “It’s a team sport but an individual team sport. It’s a competition where you have to believe you can do better every time you go out there. A lot of athletics is dependent on what’s between the ears, and the more self-confidence and success you have breeds more success, particularly in track.”
Tickets for the ATFHF induction banquet are $50 per person ($52 if purchased by credit card) or $500 for a table of 10. Orders should be mailed to Charles Tadlock, P.O. Box 211, Sheridan, AR 72150. Tickets may be picked up at the ATFHF registration desk after 5 p.m. June 1. For more information about tickets, call Tadlock at (870) 942-6478.
For more information about ATFHF, contact Miller at (501) 329-6103.