In The Locker Room With...

Meet Oberlin’s Sports Information Director, Jeff Miller. He may be bitter, but he gets the job done.

Jeff, tell me a little bit about your job.

JM: My job, okay. I’m responsible for all public relations and statistics for 22 intercollegiate sports here at Oberlin. 

It sounds like you have that down pretty good.

JM: Well, if you keep getting asked that you learn it.

So what do you do in your spare time?

JM: I play softball and golf.

Which one are you better at?

JM: Probably golf, but I’m not that good at it, either.

So have you ever won any money playing golf?

JM: Well, yes I have. We play for dollar bills here in the athletic department, and I have taken a couple of bucks from former basketball coach Satch Sullinger and current football head coach Jeff Ramsey.

Are you a pretty good softball player?

JM: I don’t know, it’s been a while since I stepped on the field.

Do you think you could play on the baseball team?

JM: No, I couldn’t play baseball on the team. I’ve never played a day of organized baseball in my entire life.

Dear lord. What other sports have you played in your lifetime?

JM: Well, I played soccer since I was five, and I’ve played pretty much everything from basketball to running track in grade school. I just stuck with soccer and basketball in high school.

So you don’t think you would be a good contact hitter?

JM: I don’t think I’d make contact at all, kinda’ like [junior third baseman] Bob Montag struggles.

Bob struggles?

JM: On the field, yes. From what I hear off the field, no.

What’s your favorite sport to watch?

JM: Well, I’m pretty much a big basketball person. The only time I watch anything on TV it’s basketball. I get bored with pretty much everything else. I have been getting somewhat more of a camaraderie with some other teams. I spent spring break with the baseball team in Florida.

How was Florida?

JM: We had a good time.

So what other kind of things do you do in your free time?

JM: No comment.

Do any funny things ever happen in the athletic office?

JM: Yeah, a lot of funny things happen here, but I won’t get into detailed stories about them. I have some incredibly funny student workers who try to pull stuff on me.

Like who?

JM: We’re not going to comment on that.

So tell me something about yourself that everybody might not know.

JM: Well, everybody says I’m bitter and I pretty much think that’s true.

Where did this bitterness come from?

JM: I don’t know, I think it’s just from years of being myself. I don’t know if it’s bitter[ness], it’s just how I am.

Do you enjoy life?

JM: Yeah, I like life.

Do you like your job?

JM: At times. It has its good times and its bad times. It’s a job. That’s the way it should be.

Where did you go to college?

JM: I went to Baldwin-Wallace College.

Tell me about some interesting things that happened during college.

JM: No comment.

So who do you hang out with in the athletic department?

JM: Well, I hang out with Don Hunsinger [Head Tennis Coach], Ann Gilbert [Head Women’s Basketball Coach], both of the Gavins [Gavin O’Neal, Cross Country Coach and Gavin Rogers, Assistant Softball Coach].

Where do you guys go to lunch?

JM: Well, anytime I’m with Huinsinger we end up getting ice cream somewhere, and everyone already knows I’m a wimp with ice cream.

Where do you live?

JM: I live in Olmsted Falls. 

That’s rather far from Oberlin isn’t it?

JM: I don’t want to be anywhere near my work environment if possible. I like to get away.

So I understand that your car has been hit a lot. What’s up with that?

JM: I don’t know, I have a little Honda people think they can hit, dart off and not tell me about it.

Do you think they do it because they know you’re bitter?

JM: I don’t think so. I don’t think they even know whose car it is. They just hit it and run.

It’s a big conspiracy, huh?

JM: Yup, pretty much. I just wish they would hit it harder so they would destroy it and I could get rid of it.