Hall of Honor
The name of “Tommy” Mills is synonymous with athletic greatness at Beloit College. A home-grown product, he captained and performed exceptionally as infielder on baseball teams which defeated Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Purdue and Northwestern and as football quarterback. Possessing theatrical and oratorical talent, he turned to the stage after graduation, but soon found greater pleasure in working with young athletes. Beloit noted his success in high school and at Creighton University and in 1920 summoned him as athletic director and football, basketball and baseball coach. His six-year tenure is heralded as Beloit’s “second golden age of athletics”; it produced two championships in football and three in basketball, including two undefeated seasons. He also continued the “Teddy” Wright tradition by directing a Greek play. Mills’ decision in 1926 to become Knute Rockne’s assistant at Notre Dame shocked the campus, and students paraded to his home in hopes of changing his mind. Later, after coaching at Georgetown and Arkansas State, plus doing national radio sportscasting, he returned to Notre Dame to teach speech and to direct Rockne Memorial Field House. A man of strong convictions, deep loyalties and broad interests, Tommy Mills has remained a College hero and idol long after his death in 1944.
