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The Rev. Dr. Alvin E. Miller Sr. was an All-Ohio Valley Conference running back for Eastern Kentucky University and ran for more than 1,000 yards in
the 1979 season and postseason. A delinquent middle school student in Fort Pierce, he became a successful high school graduate and collegiate scholar
through the relentless efforts of his seventh grade teacher, Rita Marie Johnson.
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EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY
LIFE LESSONS
BY ANTHONY WESTBURY
Dedicated teacher’s efforts put
youngster on path to success
In second grade, Alvin Miller missed more than 90
straight days of school. He simply went AWOL when
he realized he was out of his depth. When he was in
the classroom, he terrorized students and frustrated
his teachers. It took a seventh grade teacher to recognize the
good in him. She turned the boy around to excel in school,
college and in life.
Rita Marie Johnson was a young teacher in her 20s at Dan
McCarty Middle School in Fort Pierce when Alvin was assigned
to her class in 1973. She knew him by reputation from
other teachers. He was simply out of control, unable and
unwilling to learn anything.
Johnson saw him like a horse that needed breaking before
learning could happen, thus the title of Miller’s autobiography,
The Horse.
Alvin was by no means the first difficult black male student
Johnson had come across.
“In every family there are kids like Alvin,” Johnson said.
“I’ve taught several Alvins in schools where I’ve worked.”
It was her knack of reaching young black males that the
principal of Dan McCarty, Nolan Skinner, noticed. Alvin had
come up against the judicial system and was about to be ex- >>