Jim "Mills" Miller: Once a Warhawk, Always a Warhawk!

I have always considered UW-Whitewater baseball more than simply a team. If you are around the team, or maybe have pleyed your college baseball wearing a Warhawk uniform you will understand what I am about to talk about.

Warhawk baseball is every much "a family" as it is "a team." That is a major reason UW-Whitewater baseball UWW baseball has been so successful.

If UW-Whitewater baseball is a family then Jim "Mills" Miller is the patriarch of the family while current head coach John Vodenlich is the father.

While the several hundred that were at Saturday’s Warhawk doubleheader vs. La Crosse came to watch the Hawk baseball team – the real reason for many was to join Coach Miller on the day that James B. Miller Stadium would be formally dedicated.

What’s the old saying - once a Warhawk, always a Warhawk?

While it always dangerous to give Mills a microphone and not put a time limit on him, Miller portrayed humility and pride in his remarks during the dedication ceremony conducted between games of Saturday’s twinbill.

The ceremony and special day was outstanding. When a person the stature of Jim Miller is being feted it is not hard to have people that want help in making the day special.

The “Warhawk family” made Satuday’s stadium dedication day very special.

So many of Coach Miller’s former players, along with a large number of his hometown friends were on hand, not for the t-shirt or Mills bobble head doll, they were at the game to share memories with Mills on what it means to “bleed Warhawk purple” for the past 60 years-plus.

Miller spent much of the first game and the entire second game on Saturday with what Mills does best – share stories with his friends at his place – James B. Miller Stadium.

I sat down and interview Mills on Thursday and I asked him what was on “his mind” with stadium dedication day rapidly approaching.

“Back when I retired in 2003 which was a very good year for me,” Miller told voiceseyeonbaseball.blogspot.com. “I received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University, I was inducted into the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and I got to throw out a first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewer game.”

It was on the mound at Miller Park that Mills faced his retirement years with some serious soul searching.

“Man, is this the end – is this all over,” Mills said. “Is there any more beyond this or am I going to be totally board with life? So much has happened over the past eight years since then and I don’t think this is the end either. I don’t think John (Vodenlch) is going to kick me out the door on Monday because I think we get along quite well in what we are doing here.”

Miller ended the interview putting everything in perspective.

“What really hit me the other day was seeing the plaque of Carol and I I walked through the stadium gate,” Miller reminisced. “I suddenly realized that just to the left is the dedication plaque for Rudy Prucha (who the baseball field is named for. Back in 1947, the Millers moved into 243 North Prairie Street and ironically the Prucha’s lived at 263 North Prairie Street. We played together as little kids. Rudy was a neighborhood icon and we were joined together because we were neighbors and now we are still “neighbors” with the field named in honor of Prucha and the stadium in honor of Coach Miller. It really is a small world we you consider the former neighbors, neighbors again as baseball fans entering James B. Miller at Prucha Field view the dual plaques.

“This is very special, it really is.”