Radio play-by-play man Scott Miller selected to Chattahoochee Valley Hall of Fame
BY JORDAN D. HILL
jhill@ledger-enquirer.com
January 29, 2018, 11:58 AM
As a play-by-play man in Columbus since 1976, Scott Miller has painted the scene of many great moments for listeners throughout the Chattahoochee Valley. On Saturday, Miller himself will be the focus, with his induction into the Chattahoochee Valley Hall of Fame.
“When I first got the word, I was extremely humbled and proud to be joining that group,” Miller said. “You look through there, and there are some great names. There are names you recognize nationally.”
Miller said he first found the urge to enter radio play-by-play as a student at Towers High School in Decatur, Georgia. He was outgoing in practicing his craft, eventually getting permission from the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Flames to sit in an empty booth and provide play-by-play into a tape recorder.
Miller took his passion to the Columbia School of Broadcasting in Atlanta, where he earned a journalism/radio broadcasting degree. From there, he worked in Blue Ridge, Atlanta, Marietta, Monroe, Griffin, and Athens.
It was his stop at WRFC in Athens that ultimately led him to Columbus. “The general manager there was hired by Chuck McClure Sr. to come down and run his stations here in Columbus,” Miller said. I was the morning man at WRFC in Athens. He got the job down here, and he hired me to come down here.”
In only his second year with McClure Broadcasting, Miller made a bold move. He approached Columbus College athletic director Sonny Clements and baseball coach Charles Ragsdale and inquired about providing play-by-play for the school’s athletic events.
Clements and Ragsdale okayed Miller’s request, which started a partnership that continues to this day.
“They took a chance on a kid who they didn’t know. I’ll forever be thankful for those two guys for being my Columbus State connection.”
Miller’s connections to the college weren’t limited there, either. He married his wife Peggy in 1979 after the two met during her time as a student at the school. Their daughter, Lauren, also attended CSU.
With his roots firmly established in Columbus, Miller rolled through the next three decades as the go-to voice on the radio. Along with his daily sports reports, he called a number of major sporting events in the area, including Columbus State’s baseball championship in 2002, Columbus High’s 14 baseball championships and football title games for Glenwood and Brookstone.
Among his other assignments, Miller also spent a season as Video Sports Network’s television play-by-play announcer for Auburn football and was the radio play-by-play announcer for Division III football’s national title game for seven years.
Moments like sharing a booth with Georgia head coach Vince Dooley or watching the CSU baseball team deliver walk-off after walk-offs linger in Miller’s mind, but they don’t have quite the same impact as hearing from athletes years after they finished competing.
“It’s really neat to reconnect with some of the players and hear them talk about those days and how much it meant to their parents and other family members to hear their games on the radio,” Miller said. “That’s really the cool part to me.”
Now in his 43rd year in Columbus, Miller stands as the city’s longest-tenured sports reporter in any medium. He has won the Georgia Association of Broadcasters’ Gabby Award for best play-by-play broadcast multiple times, took home the Columbus Citizen of the Year honors by the VFW in 1999, and was elected to the Columbus State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.
Saturday will be a chance for Miller to reminiscence about some of the biggest games he’s called, but for the 63-year-old, it’s by no means a stopping point.
“When I first started, I was just a little older than the players. Now I’ve been doing it so long that I’m just a little older than the players’ grandparents,” Miller said. “God has blessed me to have good health and to keep going, so hopefully that will last for a long time.”
Jordan D. Hill: 770-894-9818, @lesports