Professor Project: Jimmy Miller
Always giving away his gifts for free
By Jared Martinson | Sportswriter
From the start, health and applied sciences professor and football coach Jimmy Miller knew he was going to be a teacher. A Bethel grad himself, he’s made his way around the coaching ranks and it’s led him to his teaching and coaching gig in Arden Hills.
Why Bethel?
“The reason I’m working here at Bethel is probably because I’m a graduate of here. This place had a huge impact on my life … even while I’ve been gone [coaching at other schools], this place really transformed who I am today.”
What was one success or failure in your career?
“I think about [Alexander] Bell when he came up with the discovery of the phone, he had two thousand failures before he learned how to use the phone, and he said, ‘I’ve found two thousand ways of how not to do it … One thing I still look back on is…giving up my head coach responsibility at Northwestern to become an assistant here. As a head coach, I had to guard my time because of other things I had to do. You can have a big impact as a head coach, so there’s some things I look back on, some good, some bad, some indifference.”
Why do you teach?
“I want to give back what was given to me … There’s a lot of layers of other people that have poured into my life.”
If you weren’t a professor, what would you do as an occupation?
“I’d like to be a fishing guide. I’ve thought about doing that out in Montana, ’cause I think I’m good with people, and if you were a fishing guide, all you’re really doing is teaching in a boat instead of a classroom … I’ve often thought about seeing if I could make it through a season of the show Deadliest Catch!”
“I’d say the biggest thing that’s influenced my life is my faith. It was Jan. 13, 1980, when I made a profession of my faith, and my world got turned upside down.”
Who or what has influenced you most? What are your other influences?
“I’d say the biggest thing that’s influenced my life is my faith. It was Jan. 13, 1980, when I made a profession of my faith, and my world got turned upside down. My parents had a huge impact on my life, some good, some bad. My dad was a very in-your-face kind of guy; he was a police officer. There’s been such an array of people … that have poured into my life, I feel it’s not just me giving away, it’s pieces of them I give away too.”
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
“This is going to sound kind of wimpy, but sometimes I’d just like to disappear. Not that I’m trying to run away from anything … but I could have said X-ray eyes or something.”
What is your most embarrassing teaching story?
I taught a class one time … and my fly was down the whole time and no one told me. I realized it afterwards, and I was wondering … Now I tell my classes, if my fly’s down, tell me!”
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
“From my grandpa, ‘Never judge a person until you’ve walked in their shoes’ … And also ‘Never do business with your relatives’.”
“I think it’s a bunch of ragamuffins here … and we come together, and we got a chance.”
What do you love about Bethel?
“I think it’s a bunch of ragamuffins here … and we come together, and we got a chance. And we do have that thing called faith. Our eyes are not fixed on ourselves…It’s pretty amazing to see how [you guys] get transformed. There’s water running under the bridge right now, whether we want to admit it or not, and what kind of river is that going to turn into?”
What would you wish to change about Bethel?
“I think we miss out on a lot of good kids coming here because it’s so cost-prohibitive…you’ve got to put some skin in the game, even when I was a student going here, that was the case…and it was eight thousand dollars a year.”
What is one critique you have about Bethel’s community?
“We’re too serious. Lighten up and go out and smell the roses. There’s a lot of things going on around us that are pretty good.”
What is the best moment you’ve had here in your time at Bethel?
“One as a student. We used to go out by Sem Hill and take my fly rod and line and make a loop and chase gophers down the holes. One time we decided to catch six gophers and let them loose in the library. We had to hide them in our dorm room and our RA came down, and he was there for about an hour. The gophers chewed a hole in the box and got out, and we had to catch them by hand. So we realized that maybe the Lord was chastising us a little bit. I also married my wife here at the little chapel.”
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
“I don’t see myself as a retirement guy. I’m finding that the grind of coaching football, the eighty to ninety hour work weeks, I don’t feed off of that like I used to. People have invested too much in me … I want to give back … I haven’t read anything in Scripture about going off to Florida.”
“I knew I wanted to be a physical education teacher and I never diverted from that … I say bloom where you’ve been planted.”
Did you always see yourself teaching?
“I got to be honest with you, I have. I knew I wanted to be a physical education teacher and I never diverted from that … I say bloom where you’ve been planted. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and a coach, and I don’t think you really separate those two. Coaching is just teaching on a court, a field, a diamond, whatever it might be … A lot of people look and say, ‘Oh, he’s a phys. Ed. major’, they don’t see it as a real part of the education system, but I feel there’s a lot to learn in the physical aspects of human beings.”
