Eugene Ellsworth "Shorty" Miller (November 15, 1890 – September 20, 1966) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

player. He was elected to the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were v ...

in 1974. Miller played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High ...

from 1910 to 1913, missing only one game during his tenure and amassing a 23–8–2 record. His short stature () and stubby legs earned him the

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

"The Meteoric Midget." Miller would go on to start all four seasons at Penn State, missing just one game. In 1913, he rushed for 250 yards against

Carnegie Tech University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

— a Penn State single-game rushing record that lasted 68 years (and still the Penn State single-game rushing record for a quarterback). Miller was the last

true freshman Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

to start at quarterback and open a season for Penn State at that position, until

Rob Bolden Robert Craig Bolden, Jr. (born February 20, 1992) is a former American football quarterback. After attending St. Mary's Preparatory School in Orchard Lake, Michigan, he played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions from 2010 to 201 ...

was selected by coach

Joe Paterno Joseph Vincent Paterno (; December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012), sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 20 ...

to open the Nittany Lions 2010 season.

References

External links

* * 1890 births 1966 deaths American football quarterbacks Penn State Nittany Lions football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Players of American football from York County, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania {{collegefootball-player-stub