BAMM honors former Cougars coach
Former Eastside Junior High Cougars coaching legend Jim E. Miller is currently being honored by the Benton Athletic Memorial Museum. Miller died in mid-march at the age of 81 and the museum honored the Cougars’ 1971 championship coach, leading Eastside Junior High with a 10-0 record and AAA Central Conference championship. Miller graduated from Dardanelle High School in 1957 and received a bachlor’s degree at Harding University and later receiving his masters in history at the University of Central Arkansas. He received additional graduate work at Harding, North Texas State and Henderson State elor’s and was a member of Phi Alpha Theta (History Honor Society).
Miller began his teaching career in 1962 at at Fort Worth Christian College and Academy in Fort Worth, Texas, teaching American history and government, and it was there he began his coaching career.
Miller coached track, basketball and football, and in 1967 became the coach at Harding Academy in Memphis, teaching history and Bible, and produced the first winning season since the program began in the mid-1950s.
It was 1970 when he joined the Benton Public School System as the head coach of the Eastside Junior High Cougars, and it was the next year in 1971 he led them to an undefeated 10-0 record with a 12-game winning streak during that time. The Cougars would win the AAA Central Conference championship that year.
According to the Cougars Roar newspaper, Miller’s team was referred to as the big, mean, green machine because of Eastside’s school colors, green and white.
It wasn’t just football in which Miller’s coaching excelled as he also coached track with the 440-meter relay team tying the state record in a time of 45.9 seconds.
Miller coached the Cougars until 1972, transferring to Benton High School where he taught history, government and economics until he retired in 2005.