Sadly this past weekend, Buffalo Bills fans and Western New York lost a legend as Van Miller passed away. Miller died after complications from a stroke at his home in Tonawanda, NY and battled health problems in his final years. He was 87 years old. Miller is gone but will never be forgotten.
Miller was born in 1927 and raised in Dunkirk, NY and did play-by-play for various local sports in the Western New York area. He knew when he was 10 years old he wanted to be a play-by-play announcer. He worked at several different radio stations across Western New York until he got his first big break in 1955. He was hired at WBEN and WIVB Channel 4. Although his job at Channel 4 was supposed to be temporary, Van remained there until retiring in 1998 as the sports director.
When it was announced in 1959 that the Buffalo Bills will be playing for the then American Football League (AFL) in 1960, one of the first things general manager Richard Gallagher did was hire Van Miller to do play-by-play for the new Buffalo team after WBEN got the rights to broadcast Bills games on radio. Miller did play-by-play for some of the best teams in Bills history in their early days in the AFL as he called the 1964 and 1965 AFL Championship Games where the Bills whipped the San Diego Chargers both times, allowing one single touchdown in both games. The Bills went to a third straight AFL Championship Game in 1966, with the winner playing in the inaugural Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers. But the Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, who got whipped by the Packers in Super Bowl I.
Miller was with the Bills through 1971 when the Bills' radio rights was switched over WBEN's rival WKBW and Miller did not broadcast Bills games for seven years. During Van's seven-year absence as Bills play-by-play, he called games for the then-Buffalo NBA team the Buffalo Braves. Van also called games for Niagara University Basketball and was a part of some of the best moments in NU Purple Eagles history, especially the Calvin Murphy era. Van called Murphy's 68-point game against Syracuse and their run to the NCAA Tournament in 1970, where they upset Pennsylvania University in the first round. He also called games for the Buffalo Stallions Soccer team as well as the University at Buffalo Football team.
He returned as the Bills play-by-play man when WBEN got the games back in 1978 and remained their play-by-play man through the 2003 season. Unfortunately he missed some of O.J. Simpson's best seasons (including his 2000-yard season in 1973), but he was a part of the Bills greatest success from 1988-1993, when they played in four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93 and won five AFC East Division Championships in those six years. Maybe Van's best calls were in the Greatest Comeback Game over the Houston Oilers where they were down 35-3 and won 41-38 in January 1993.
Miller called some of the best players in this era: Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed, Darryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett, Steve Tasker, and many more. Even though the rest of the 1990s did not produce any more Super Bowl appearances, they were still a very good team. In the entire decade of the 1990s, the Bills won 103 games (averaging over 10 wins a season) and made the playoffs eight times in those 10 years with four division titles and four Super Bowl appearances. No word was better used by Miller than "Fandemonium." Talley says he's the one who came up with that while Miller disputes that. Regardless, Miller made the term famous.
Miller has been inducted into six hall of fames, but none greater than the one he made shortly after his retirement in 2004. That year, the Pro Football Hall of Fame honored Van with the Pete Rozelle Award as he became the first local broadcaster to win that prestigious award. What was supposed to be a two-minute speech became a seven-minute speech/stand up comedy routine. I'm sure few if any cared that he went beyond his allotted time.
Miller was inducted into the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame last October.
Here's a look back at some of Van's finest moments:
1964 AFL Championship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0a781vZuE
1990 AFC Championship 51-3 beatdown over the Los Angeles Raiders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNlozIBMnro
1988 AFC East Championship clinching win over the Jets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot4raqK0oJI
Ending the 20-game losing streak against the Dolphins 1980
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPFP8bt4Tyo
Jim Kelly's Game-winning TD run against Miami 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok0fczZw9gE
Of course the greatest Comeback in NFL history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSgfGKhYKu8
RIP Van Miller, you will be greatly missed.
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