Hall of Fame
Meet football player Glenn Miller of Beaconsfield, Que.
Born in Montréal on March 8, 1963, Miller was raised in Laval, Que., and was educated at École J.-Jean-Joubert elementary school, before graduating from Laval Catholic high school and Vanier College. He played five seasons at McGill, and completed his bachelor's degree in 1986, majoring in education with a minor in psychology, followed by a marketing certificate in 1987.
A 6-foot-2, 205-pound inside receiver and place-kicker, he earned the rare distinction of all-star status at both positions in 1984. That year, Miller set a single-season McGill record with 45 receptions, which lasted for 33 years until surpassed by both Charles-Antoine Sinotte (72) and Erik Galas (54) in 2007.
By the time that his university playing career was finished, Miller had become the nation's all-time leading receiver, racking up 2,011 yards, while hauling in 154 receptions and 12 touchdowns in 35 career regular season contests.
The 2,011 yards established McGill, OQIFC and CIAU records that stood until broken by Jock Climie of Queen's in 1989. Miller currently stands 11th among Quebec conference all-time leaders and ranks third in the McGill record book, behind Charles-Antoine Sinotte (2,935) and Erik Galas (2,522).
The 154 catches by Miller stood as a league record for a dozen years until 1998 when Ottawa's Chris Evraire collected 185 over his career. Miller now ranks seventh in the Quebec league and third in the McGill's alltime leaders, behind Sinotte (251) and Galas (194).
Miller's dozen receiving TDs tied a school record set by Rick Biewald a decade earlier, a standard that stood until surpassed in 2007 by the aforementioned Galas, who ended up with 19 receiving majors in five seasons.
Miller had the unique feat of being the only barefoot kicker in the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference and the league subsequently implemented a rule that kickers were required to wear footwear. He skirted the rule by becoming the first player to kick with a ballet slipper.
In 1986, Miller set school and league single-game kicking records with six field-goals in a 32-16 victory over Carleton at Percival Molson Stadium. He connected from distances of 20, 21, 44, 32, 15 and 15 yards, respectively. The McGill mark still stands but the league mark was surpassed in an overtime game. He kicked 15 field-goals that year to establish another single-season McGill record, since broken.
A fifth-round selection (44th overall) by Hamilton in the 1985 Canadian Football League draft, Miller ended up returning to McGill for a fifth season before playing pro for Ottawa the following summer in the Empire State Football League. In 1987, he declined an offer from the CFL's Ottawa Rough Riders to accept a position with Prudential of America, a life insurance company.
"It was tough decision for me to walk away from a sport I loved and worked so hard at but I was too ambitious. Chasing my CFL dream was worthwhile but I felt the league was fragile and that weighed heavily in turning down a contract from Ottawa," said Miller. "Looking back on my life and how I succeeded as a businessman, I think it was a good decision."
Nowadays, the seasoned entrepreneur currently serves as president of his own company, MBG Finance, an established financial lending and advisory firm with specialties in asset-based lending, investment banking and advisory services. He also partnered with his wife Lisabel, to open an art gallery studio in Montreal.
