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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Former YMMIA General Board Member, BYU Athletic Director Millet Dies
Salt Lake Tribune 20Jun00 S2
BYU on an athletic scholarship. While there he earned nine varsity letters
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Former YMMIA General Board member, BYU Coach and
Athletic Director W. Floyd Millet died Saturday, June 17th at the age of 88.
Millett was best known for taking the BYU basketball team to Madison Square
Garden for the first time, and for coaching the BYU football team to its
first win over the University of Utah.
Born October 17, 1911 in Mesa, Arizona, Millett was a graduate of Mesa High
School and attended Gila Junior College in Thatcher Arizona before attending
BYU on an athletic scholarship. While there he earned nine varsity letters
in football, basketball and track and was named All-Conference in basketball
for two years and in football for one year. He also set an AAU record in the
broad jump and won the J. Edwin Stein Award as the outstanding
scholar-athlete at BYU.
After earning a bachelor's degree from BYU in 1934, he got at Master's
Degree from the University of Southern California in 1939, and went on to
begin a coaching career at Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah. He returned
to BYU in 1937 to coach basketball, and track. In 1942 he also coached the
football team for one year, and the team beat its archrival, the University
of Utah, for the first time. That same year his basketball team was invited
to play at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In 1948, his basketball
team won the conference title, and Millet was awarded the Dale Rex Memorial
Award honoring the Utahn contributing the most to athletics.
But Millett left BYU in 1949 to pursue business opportunities in Salt Lake
City. But BYU persuaded him to return in 1963 as Athletic Director. During
his tenure, Millett started the National Cougar Club and oversaw the
construction of both Cougar Stadium and the BYU Marriott Center, which was
at the time the largest college basketball arena in the US. Millet retired
in 1976 after serving on the Fiesta Bowl organizing committee. That year he
was inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame.
Millet also served as a member of the LDS Church's YMMIA General Board for
nineteen years and was chairman of the All-Church Athletic Committee for
five of those years. During the 1980 Winter Olympics, he served a mission
with his wife, Vera, as directors of the LDS Church visitors center in Lake
Placid, New York.
He was the father of four children, 29 grandchildren and 27
great-grandchildren.
See also:
Former BYU athletic director dies
BYU NewsNet 19Jun00 P2
By Sam Neff: NewsNet Sports Editor
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