Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1987
- Class:
- 1965
On October 10, 1964, the Marshall football team grabbed a hard-fought 14-12 win over the University of Buffalo at Fairfield Stadium, led by the biggest passing performance in school history as junior Howard Lee Miller threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns, both of them to end Bobby Pruett. Two weeks later, the Point Pleasant, W.Va., native set another record by completing 80 percent of his passes (12-of-15) in a 28-6 win over Louisville. Miller led Coach Charlie Snyder’s Thundering Herd in passing as a sophomore and as a junior, a season in which Marshall went 7-3, recording the school’s most wins since the 1947 team went 9-3 and played in the Tangerine Bowl.
As a senior, Miller seemed poised to take his team to new heights as the 1965 team won its first four games, but late in that fourth game he suffered a broken leg in a hard-fought 10-9 win over the Quantico Marines from Virginia. Marshall lost its next five games before beating Ohio University in the season finale to finish 5-5, and the Thundering Herd would not have another winning season until 1984.
Despite missing more than half of his senior season, Miller shattered the existing career passing yardage record with 2,220 yards. He was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.
