Tim Miller's catcher remembers last day in the sun with his beloved Canton South coach

CANTON TWP. - Tim Miller, whose Canton South baseball teams won 404 games in his 29 years as head coach of the Wildcats, has died.

Miller was 81 when he succumbed to complications from an extended illness Monday. He battled Alzheimer's Disease in recent years but maintained a social circle, attending, when able, the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club and Friday breakfasts at Samantha's with old Canton South friends.

The legend came to life one last time recently.

Miller attended an alumni game at the Canton South field he helped build in the 1960s and is named after him now.

Rev. Scott Wilson, who played catcher for Miller in the 1970s, said Miller appeared in a golf cart with the game in progress.

"Play stopped as players left the field to come and meet him," WIlson said. "The dugouts emptied as players gathered around.

"He watched for a couple of innings from the dugout, told a few stories, shouted a few quips, and gave a few instructions, to the delight of us all.

"And then, he was gone from us, and we felt kind of like we feel after hearing of his passing."

Miller was more than 6 feet tall with a vise-grip handshake and athletic build, but he called himself "the runt of the family."

He liked talking about his dad, George, whom he said was "6-foot-5 back when that was like being 7-foot-5." George was a senior basketball player in 1938 at what then was called Canton Township High School. It was later renamed Canton South.

Tim played for two famous coaches, Don Nehlen in football and Red Ash in basketball. He was Nehlen's first quarterback at South.

"Don was 23 when he took over, and he was like your long lost brother," Miller recalled on a 2013 episode of Larry Hackenberg's Sports Time Machine radio program. "Red was the authority figure.

"I've never seen a person control a gymnasium like Red did. He controled not only his own team, he controled the opposing team, the referees, the fans, the cheerleaders. His presence was overwhelming."

Miller was a shortstop and baseball captain at Ohio Northern.

In 1965, Herb Hackenberg gave up South's head baseball coaching job at the last minute. The school supertintendent asked Miller, then 21, if he would take over.

"I told him it was not a problem," Miller said. "But there WAS a problem. I didn't know what I was doing.

"Fortunately, Bob DeLap was on the staff. He had just played for at Ohio U for Bob Wren, probably the best college baseball coach in the United States.

"Bob DeLap saved me. He was the person who caused any success that I had."

DeLap was South's head basketball coach, with Miller at his side as an assistant, during one of the most famous games in county history, the Wildcats' five-overtime loss to McKinley in 1980. DeLap was 81 when he died in 2020.

Miller posted a 404-244 baseball record during a Wildcat coaching run that spanned through the 1993 season.

He wanted to stay on as baseball coach even though he retired as a teacher. When that path was blocked (he was glad in retrospect, because he began a second career as a supervisor at the Pro Football Hall of Fame), one of his former players, Rocky Bourquin, got the job in 1994.

"Being the head coach after Tim, at first, was very tough," Bourquin said. "Trying to coach like Tim but putting your own coaching experiences to a test were extremely challenging.

"Not only did I not want to let my players down, but I didn’t want to let Tim down. He was one of my biggest fans and he wanted his Wildcats to do well."

Miller is four years older than his 6-foot-4 brother Ron and 14 years older than his 6-foot-3 brother Mark. Mark made a name in football as a four-year starting quarterback at Bowling Green and a third-round draft pick by the Browns.

"Tim lived and breathed baseball," said Mark Miller, who played baseball for Tim in the 1970s. "I thought if we got into a close game, Tim would win it for us, just because we were completely prepared.

"Our dad died when I was halfway through college. Tim became the patriarch of the family. He was mature, he was a leader, and he wasn't afraid to make decisions."

Joe Shaheen, who became a northeast Ohio radio, television and newspaper journalist, was a teammate of Mark Miller during Tim Miller's coaching heyday.

"Playing for Coach Miller was what I figured playing in 'The Show' must be like," Shaheen said. "You were expected to dress a certain way for school on game days. You dressed for each game a certain way, from your sanitary socks and stirrups and all the way up to the red CS ball cap.

"By my senior year, it had been a while since the 'Cats were at the top of the Federal League. But you'd never know it by the way the team prepared for each game.

"Coach Miller himself would throw pregame batting practice. He'd test your mental approach by quizzing you individually on situational baseball.

"I never heard Coach raise his voice, argue with an umpire or even stare you down if you'd just made a bonehead play.

"I never saw him play favorites. I never saw him angry. He was a class act on the field and off."

Rob Dewolf played against Miller's South teams as a Jackson Polar Bear, on his way to a pro career that led to Class AAA.

"South would come out in those uniforms that were so bright white they hurt your eyes," Dewolf said. "They would run their warmup drills, fly ball, hit the cutoff man, infield drill without screwing up anything.

"If you sat there and watched, they looked so good, it was like you were down two runs before the game started."

A lifelong friendship formed. Not long ago, Dewolf, famed local coach Doug Miller (no relation) and Tim Miller's high school teammate Ted Neininger visited Tim at his home.

Dewolf inspected team photos from Miller's 29 years at South, along with extensive memorabilia. He recognized a bat on the wall. Yes, he told Dewolf, it was a bat Dewolf had given him 30 years ago.

"I got choked up at his house, just like I'm choked up now talking about it," Dewolf said.

In the Time Machine interview, Miller recalled his first game as South's head coach ... snow falling ... Ken Groves and Ronnie Young combining on a no-hitter. He reflected on his long career.

"I don't equate winning with success," he said. "You can feel good about a loss and bad about a win. I felt like a failure if had a kid with great talent and I wasn't getting that out of him."

Wilson saw Miller as a great success.

"Without always being aware of it, we players learned life skills from Tim Miller each day, each season," the old catcher said. "He taught us the importance of respecting our parents, our families, our coaches, opposing coaches and umpires.

"He taught us the importance of respecting ourselves, our school, the game, teammates, opponents, and the girlfriends we weren't supposed to be dating.

"I would bet that most of his players still know by memory his take sign, bunt sign, steal sign and squeeze sign, as well as what it could mean to be given the dreaded 'Andy Gump Award' for making a mental mistake."

"Because of his coaching and preparedness, Canton South baseball teams won far more than we lost."

Miller was inducted into Canton South's Hall of Distinction in 2023.

Calling hours will be conducted from 4-7 p.m. Monday in the Canton South High School auditorium. On Tuesday at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Canton, visitation will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the funeral at 11.

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Former Canton South High School baseball coach Tim Miller dies