Joseph Anthony Miller (October 6, 1898 – August 1, 1963) was a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

champion

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

player. Miller was a

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

for the

New York Americans The New York Americans, colloquially known as the Amerks, were a professional ice hockey team based in New York City from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the second to play ...

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

and Philadelphia Quakers between 1927 and 1931. Miller was a member of the

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

championship team.

Ice hockey

Joe Miller, a native of Morrisburg,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, first came onto the ice hockey scene with the Pittsburgh Athletic Association (PAA) in 1916–17, playing 40 games for the club before heading back to Canada where he would play for seven years with Renfrew and the

Ottawa New Edinburghs The Ottawa New Edinburghs (also known as the Ottawa Seconds) were a senior ice hockey team from the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa that played in various ice hockey leagues in Canada during the early 1900s, such as the Ottawa City Hockey ...

. He then reappeared in Pittsburgh for the 1924–25 season, to play with the

Fort Pitt Hornets The Fort Pitt Hornets (sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Fort Pitt Panthers) were a semi-professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and it ...

in the

United States Amateur Hockey Association The United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) was an ice hockey governing body in the United States from 1920 to 1930, which operated an amateur league from 1920 to 1925. The league was filled with predominantly Canadian-born players, but ...

, and then the two following seasons he played with the

St. Paul Saints The St. Paul Saints are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015. They previ ...

in Minnesota. Miller played for the

when he was sent to the minors after being waived by the Americans. By an interesting set of circumstances his

opportunity arose. His season with Niagara Falls over, Miller was at home in Ottawa when New York Rangers goaltender

Lorne Chabot Laurent Edward Chabot (October 5, 1900 – October 10, 1946) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Chabot played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1926 to 1937. He was a member of two Stanley Cup championship teams, the New York Ra ...

was injured in the second game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Rangers coach and

General manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Lester Patrick Curtis Lester Patrick (December 31, 1883 – June 1, 1960) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA; Western Hockey League (WHL) after ...

asked the Americans and the Maroons for permission to use Miller for the remainder of the series. The Americans agreed but

Montreal Maroons The Montreal Maroons (officially the Montreal Professional Hockey Club) were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL). They played in the NHL from 1924–25 NHL season, 1924 to 1937–38 NHL season, 1938, winning the Sta ...

head coach

Eddie Gerard Edward George Gerard (February22, 1890August7, 1937) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach, and manager. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he played for 10 seasons for his hometown Ottawa Senators. He spent the first three years of his p ...

forced Lester Patrick to play goal for the rest of that game. Miller was the designated backup for all NHL teams at the time, and he was loaned to the Rangers. Miller played three games for the Rangers and won the

for the New York. Later he played for the

and the Philadelphia Quakers. He wore uniform number 1.

Football

Miller was a skilled multi-sport athlete and was an accomplished elite football player. Suiting up for three seasons with the Ottawa Senators (an interim name for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded on September 19, 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup cham ...

) he was a star player and part of two Grey Cup championship teams. In 1925 he was integral to his team's success, but missed the Grey Cup due to his hockey commitment in St.Paul. He was the star of the

14th Grey Cup The 14th Grey Cup was played on December 4, 1926, before 8,276 fans at the Varsity Stadium at Toronto. The Ottawa Senators defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues 10–7. Joe Miller was the star of the game, scoring three vital late games "rouges" ( ...

in 1926, scoring three vital late games "rouges" (single points) and staving off two critical potential turnovers.

Stanley Cup and Grey Cup legacy

Miller's amazing two sport championship achievement makes him one of only three people to have their names engraved on both of Canada's premier sport trophies, the

and the

, as players. The others are

Lionel Conacher Lionel Pretoria Conacher ( ; May 24, 1900 – May 26, 1954), nicknamed "the Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. ...

and

Carl Voss Carl Potter Voss (January 6, 1907 – September 13, 1993) was an American ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League. He played for several teams between 1926 and 1938. He would later become a referee, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall ...

. In 1967 Joseph ‘Joe’ A. Miller was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.Joseph ‘Joe’ A. Miller, BIOGRAPHY - Football, Year Inducted: 1967
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Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Joe 1898 births 1963 deaths Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Central Hockey League (1925–1926) players Fort Pitt Hornets players Ice hockey people from Ontario New York Americans players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States New York Rangers players Niagara Falls Cataracts players Ottawa Rough Riders players People from the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Philadelphia Quakers (NHL) players Pittsburgh Athletic Association ice hockey players Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) players 20th-century Canadian sportsmen St. Paul Saints (AHA) players Stanley Cup champions Syracuse Stars (IHL) players