Jerry Miller - Inducted 2023

Jerry Miller is a 1959 White Lake High School and 1963 Dakota Wesleyan College graduate. As a high school athlete, Miller was an all-state football player who scored 147 points in eight games for White Lake his senior year. He was also the punter and one of the state's six-man football’s finest drop kickers.

During his five-decade career, Miller was affiliated with 16 South Dakota high schools and colleges. In 1970, he took a teaching position at Lincoln High School and was an assistant in football, wrestling, and track & field, and from 1972-1990 he was Lincoln's head football coach.

Miller and Max Hawk started the SoDak Track & Field Clinics in South Dakota in 1976, and Miller continued as director until 2014. In 1981 he and several coaches were instrumental in getting the South Dakota football playoffs sanctioned and helped establish girls' sports.

Miller is a lifelong South Dakota historian. As a passion and hobby, he became the official history keeper of South Dakota school mascots, both past and present. He has been a longtime leader for high school coaches at the state and national levels, including serving as President of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

Coach Miller has earned numerous state and national honors and has been inducted into several Halls of Fame. He earned the prestigious National Drug Enforcement Award for his efforts to combat drugs and alcohol in high schools.