One other View

First of two parts

As a young girl growing up, to having fun with a successful academic profession as a Black woman serving as Hamline University’s president, sports have been necessary to Dr. Fayneese Miller in so some ways. Recently, while sitting in her office, she shared with the MSR her fondest memories of sports and their impact on her. 

She humbly attributed her love of sports to her father. “My dad loves sports,” said Miller. “I’m the youngest girl. So, once you get 4 siblings older than you, sharing time together with your dad is precious,” explained Miller, who’s the center child amongst seven siblings. “I feel it was spending time with my father that I liked.”

“I’m this little girl sitting next to my dad. I don’t know what on this planet is happening. Dad is having fun with it, joyful when he’s cheering despite the fact that I’m not quite sure why.”

Miller also accompanied her dad to baseball games. “My father was an enormous baseball fan.” 

As a teenager, she recalls, “I used to be a cheerleader in middle school. I used to be a cheerleader in highschool, but wasn’t adequate. I attempted out [for] the cheering squad my first 12 months in college,” but saw it was too dangerous and dropped the game, admitted Miller.

There was no Title IX when she was in highschool—no competitive prep sports for ladies. “You may do it recreationally because I played softball on a regular basis. I played volleyball. All those things…but Title IX got here afterward.”

When Miller later became a mother and a wife, she used sports as a bonding experience as well.

“My son was actively involved in sports,” said Miller. “I made a decision to play golf because I desired to have a sport that I could play with him. I wanted something that I could really do with him and do well. He was in elementary school when he and I began playing golf together.”

Miller recalled when her son, who was about 4 years old on the time, was watching Tiger Woods win his first Masters. “My son saw an athlete that he said looked like him…and he wanted golf lessons. I got him into golf and I followed him shortly thereafter.

“It was a solution to bond. More often than not he and I can be the one people of color, [just] the 2 of us. But we actually didn’t care. Just fun time for us.”

Miller was hired as Hamline’s 20^th president in 2015, the primary Black and second woman to be named president there. But she didn’t isolate herself within the proverbial ivory tower like many college presidents, keeping her distance from athletics.

As an alternative, Miller bonded along with her Hamline students as much as possible. Throughout her presidency, she maintained an open-door policy for student-athletes.

“I do know all of the football players. I worked out not too way back with the ladies’s basketball team. The coach had me understanding with them in an actual practice. I used to be awful, however it was fun.

“That’s the sort of relationship I actually have with the scholars. They know I care about them. Not superficial. I need them to do in addition to they possibly can, to offer it their all.

“Watching them, seeing them grow, seeing them benefit from the love of the game. They do it because they adore it, because they’re not on scholarship. That’s what I take great pride in.

“These are my kids. These are my babies. And I’m going to miss them,” said Miller. 

In April she announced her retirement as Hamline president, effective next June. In next week’s View, Miller talks about her upcoming departure from the St. Paul school.