FARGO, N.D. – The man who called five North Dakota State University football national championships, three Top 25 men's basketball victories, and described countless other "My, Oh My!" moments for Bison Nation has passed away.
Scott Miller, the play-by-play voice of NDSU football and basketball the past 20 seasons, died overnight at a Fargo hospital surrounded by his family after a nearly four-year fight against melanoma. He was 57.
Miller joined the NDSU broadcast team in 1996 with WDAY before moving to KFGO in 2010. In addition to his game day duties, he hosted the weekly "Bison Feedback" call-in show with NDSU coaches and read the inductions for the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony annually.
Also the play-by-play voice of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks independent professional baseball club the past 10 seasons, he was an avid baseball fan who came to share a nickname with New York Yankees legends Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
The "M&M Boys" at NDSU were Miller and longtime colleague Jack Michaels, who called men's and women's basketball games together in the days of Division II doubleheaders Friday and Saturday nights.
"I always smile when I think back on the nickname we were tabbed with," Michaels said. "Broadcasting with Scott was fun. To be able to feed off one another while painting pictures is an art, and Scott was top notch at it. Scott was an 'in the moment' broadcaster. His voice and style had a hint in it that something could happen on the next play, so you better listen."
A consummate professional, Miller delivered descriptions of Bison wins and losses in the Division II years as well as he did in the biggest moments of NDSU's rapid rise to prominence in Division I, including men's basketball wins at Wisconsin and Marquette, and an NCAA tournament victory over Oklahoma.
"Ever since I was a little kid, being a broadcaster always intrigued me," Miller told the Minot (N.D.) Daily News in a 2011 interview. "I wasn't a particularly good athlete, but I was always interested in doing this. Being a sportscaster was something I guess I was always called to do."
A 1976 graduate of Minot High School, Miller was a member of the Minot High Symphonic Choir and the Change of Pace singers, a pop singing group. He spent one year as a music student at Minot State before going to Washington State on a full-tuition scholarship and beginning his sports broadcasting career.
"I think the vocal training and the voice lessons I had all of those years probably helped me immeasurably," Miller told the Minot Daily News. "I try to use my voice to convey the actual emotion of the broadcast in which there is a certain rhythm to, just like music."
Miller was the Montana Sportscaster of the Year during a three-year stop as Montana State's play-by-play voice, and he also called games for Idaho, Eastern Washington and Pacific Lutheran before spending four years at the University of North Dakota from 1992 to 1995.
He was a 2004 recipient of the North Central Conference Ed Kolpack Media Award in recognition of his contributions to the conference, and was the 2010 North Dakota Sportscaster of the Year.
