Millen recalls football journey at Pa. Hall of Fame induction
Submitted photo
Matt Millen (left) poses for a photo with George Von Benko (center) and Russ Grimm (right) at the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame banquet on Oct. 28. Millen and Grimm were both inducted.
Submitted photo
Matt Millen is shown during his playing days with the Raiders.
Submitted photo
Matt Millen is shown during his playing days at Penn State.
The recent Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on Oct. 28 at the Delta Hotels by Marriott in Breinigsville was a star-studded affair.
Locally Fayette County Sports Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer was the headliner, but at the event two former pro football stars, Russ Grimm and Matt Millen, took center stage. We interviewed Scottdale native Russ Grimm in last week’s Memory Lane column. This week we focus our attention on Millen, who was thrilled to be part of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame 2023 class, even though he cracked a joke about his induction.
“It’s an honor to be able to go into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame,” Millen offered. “I just thank the people who did the voting I just faked them out.”
Millen was part of the 60th Class of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame joining: Jan Hutchinson, Art Howe, Eugene Guarilia (deceased), Larry Miller, Nicole Levandusky, Dave Crowell, Frank Bolick, Billy Sheridan (deceased), Bob Bubb, Stringer, Dan Baker and Grimm.
Millen was in his home area at the banquet. He was born and grew up in the Hokendauqua section of Whitehall Township, a suburb of Allentown. He attended Whitehall High School in the Lehigh Valley region. Millen was a standout football player for the school.
Whitehall High School later permanently retired Millen’s Whitehall football jersey number (83) in honor of his high school, collegiate, and NFL football accomplishments, making him one of only three Whitehall High School football players, along with fellow Whitehall High School alumni and NFL stars Saquon Barkley (21) and Dan Koppen (77), to have their Whitehall jersey numbers permanently retired in the school’s history.
Millen was recruited by Penn State, but almost wound up playing at another school.
“I actually signed with Colorado,” Millen recalled. “I have a really awesome story involving Coach Paterno. He got into a fight with one of the recruiters at my house. It was interesting. I actually signed my papers with Colorado and my dad wouldn’t sign the papers and that’s how I got to Penn State.
“My mindset was, and I think you have to have this mindset, I’m going to play wherever I go. At that time it was the wild west in recruiting so none of the NIL stuff was involved. They were paying pretty good.”
Millen was part of a groundbreaking class for the Nittany Lions.
“Ours was the top recruiting class in the country that year,” Millen stated. “Out of our class we had quite a few really good players, guys that went on to the NFL and had really good careers. Mike Guman played there and had 10 years at the next level, Bruce Clark did the same thing, Irv Panky, we had a lot of guys that went on to the next level. I think that was the base for the next four years that held that group together because we were pretty good.”
A position switch helped fuel a great run by Penn State.
“My freshman year at Penn State both Bruce Clark and myself, we started at linebacker,” Millen recalled. “The problem was Clark and I were both about 240 pounds and we were about the biggest guys on our defense. We were small and we weren’t very physical, so my freshman year we lost five games I believe and so Coach Paterno put Clark and I on the defensive line, he put our hands in the dirt and then I played at around 270 and the same with Clark and we were a lot more physical as a defense, which I think is one of the most important things you can do because physical toughness matters. We changed things around and from there on we were pretty good.”
During his time at Penn State, Millen was part of Nittany Lions teams that posted a combined a 37-11 record, including back-to-back 11-1 campaigns in 1977 and 1978. He earned All-America honors for his performance in 1978, helping lead the program to an appearance in the national championship game. Penn State lost to Alabama in the 1978 national championship game. The Crimson Tide prevailed in the Sugar Bowl, 14-7.
“We could have been unbeaten in both 11-1 seasons,” Millen said. “The games that we lost, one was to Kentucky and now that you look back on it they had a phenomenal team, but they beat us in the rain and it was a really close game. But having said all that my experience at Penn State was a great experience, and you met great people and Coach Paterno was probably at the top of his game then and so it was a fun time to be at Penn State.”
A back injury limited Millen to just three games in his senior season with the Nittany Lions in 1979.
The Oakland Raiders made Matt Millen the 43rd overall selection of the 1980 NFL Draft.
“When I was drafted by the Raiders as soon as I got there Mr. Al Davis told me I was going back to linebacker and it worked out,” Millen said. “I was defensive rookie of the year and things worked out pretty good.”
Millen grew up idolizing Dick Butkus and Ray Nitschke. He followed in their footsteps when he entered the NFL.
“Two guys that I liked growing up were Butkus and Nitschke,” Millen explained. “When I was growing up I was never watching teams. I liked players and it was easy to like Butkus and I got to know him pretty good and the same with Ray. They were from a whole other school. In fact I got probably my best compliment from Butkus when he said, Matt this isn’t your era you should have played with us.”
Millen played as a linebacker for 12 years for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins, playing on four Super Bowl-winning teams and winning a Super Bowl ring for each of the three franchises for which he played.
Millen looked back at his NFL career.
“You know what’s weird?” Millen recalled. “You know what you think about more than the Super Bowls? You think about the ones that you didn’t get in. Like 1982 was a great Raiders team and we messed it up and then in 1991 or 90 with the 49ers, my second year with the 49ers we got beat by the Giants on a field goal. That’s what I think about, we should have been in that Super Bowl too. I thought we had a great shot in 1985, the Bears eventually won it, but we screwed it up by getting beat by New England, but that would have been a great, great Super Bowl, us and the Bears.”
Following his NFL playing career, Millen was a football commentator for several national television and radio networks.
“Broadcasting is something fun and I enjoy it,” Millen said. “I never considered it. Coach John Madden was the one that got me involved and I started with him at CBS and then I went to Fox and then I went to the Lions and then I came out and went to NBC and ABC, ESPN and went back to Fox. To me Fox by far was the best place to be.”
In 2001, Millen was hired as president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Lions and served in that position unti 2008. Things did not go well during his stint with the Lions.
“You take a shot,” Millen lamented. “But what it taught me was I wasn’t ready for that position and that’s a whole different world. It’s not just about your knowledge and understanding of football. In fact that has very little to do with that. It’s more to do with managing people and getting the right people in the right positions and building an organization. Now after being exposed to it I have a better understanding of what it’s all about, but if I was going to do anything I would coach.”
Millen was diagnosed with the rare disease amyloidosis in 2017. In Millen’s case, the disease affected his heart, he had a heart transplant in 2018.
“I’m doing pretty good health-wise,” Millen reported. “You have to be careful and you still watch certain things. I had a heart transplant and it went pretty well and I keep my fingers crossed and keep on going.”
In 2022 Millen was inducted into the Lehigh Valley Sports Hall of Fame. For Millen, the highlight of the recent Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame banquet was meeting a childhood idol, basketball great Larry Miller.
“The interesting thing is Larry Miller is in this class,” Millen offered. “I’ve never told anybody this, but Larry Miller is from Catasauqua, right across from where I come from, Hokendauqua. Larry Miller was the guy that I looked to, he gave me more hope than anything that I could make it. If somebody from Catasauqua could make it, somebody from Hokendauqua could make it.”
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