Alvin Nugent "Bo" McMillin

Coaching ∙ Geneva College

Sports old timers remember Bo McMillin as the football coach at Geneva College in the brief glory years of 1925 to 1927, when his teams compiled a 20-5-1 record. His most famous win at Geneva was the 16-9 upset of Harvard in 1926. That legendary victory was a return performance that haunted the Harvards. During his playing days at tiny Centre College in Kentucky, Bo had led the Praying Colonels to a stunning 6-0 upset over Harvard in 1921. Fittingly, Bo scored the only touchdown of the game on a 35-yard run. The Colonels won 26 games and lost only three during Bo’s three seasons as a Centre College player. Geneva lost to Cornell that season in a 6-0 thriller that narrowly missed being another upset. Bo’s 1927 Geneva cleaters racked up a fine 8-0-1 record. Before coming to Geneva, Bo coached at Centenary College in Louisiana, where his teams won 25 games and lost only three. (Bo notably coached Cal Hubbard at both Centenary and Geneva). After leaving Geneva, Bo compiled a 27-21-1 record at Kansas State University, then coached at Indiana University from 1934 to 1947, guiding the formerly weak Hoosiers to a 63-42-11 record over fourteen seasons. He left Indiana to coach the Detroit Lions in the National Football League for three seasons from 1948 to 1950. In February 1951 Bo signed a contract to coach the Philadelphia Eagles, but ill health soon ended his career. He underwent an operation in October 1951 and died in March 1952 at age 57. Bo was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 and was the subject of an anecdote by President Dwight D Eisenhower in 1958.