On Wednesday, August 25th, another star fell from the Indianapolis sky. Robin Miller, ABA Indiana Pacers reporter and noteworthy motorsports journalist, died at the age of 71. An Indianapolis Motor Speedway press release described Miller as “a writer and columnist covering the Indianapolis 500 and INDYCAR SERIES racing” who then “became a television personality first with ESPN, then SPEED and most recently NBC.” His death came just twelve days after he was honored at a special Hall of Fame induction ceremony during Brickyard weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Over the past 25 years, I had the pleasure of spending a considerable amount of time with Robin, mostly in conjunction with the 1997 ABA 30 year reunion and again during the ABA 50th anniversary celebration a few years ago. He always called me “Big Al” which warmed my heart. Robin was like that. He had a way with people. While Miller’s name has become synonymous with the Indy 500, many Hoosiers will recall Miller’s time with the ABA Pacers as reporter for the Indy Star. In that role, he was an eyewitness to all three Pacers ABA championships.
Readers will remember an event at the Irving Theatre back on March 17, 2018, when Robin Miller, Bob Netolicky, and Pacers original owner Dick Tinkham came to Irvington for the official release of their book We Changed the Game. The book details the story of the Indiana Pacers and the ABA by the men who lived it. That day, a crowd of 150 people was treated to two hours of stories, memories, and laughs as those three legends regaled the attendees.
Tinkham passed away on October 14, 2018, and as fate would have it, I was back in the Irving Theatre when I received the call from Neto informing me of his passing. I will never forget Neto telling me, “Well, at least we gave him a chance to tell his story” — a story that I have detailed in past columns. Now I’d like to take a few moments to tell Robin’s story, with a fourth-quarter assist by two old friends.
Robin Lee Miller was born on October 27, 1949, in Anderson, Indiana. He graduated from Southport High School but flunked out of Ball State University “after two very enjoyable quarters.” He also spent one semester at IUPUI. His first car was a 1962 Ford Galaxie. Miller was best known for being a writer at The Indianapolis Star from 1968–2001. He also wrote for Autoweek, Car and Driver, ESPN and Speed magazines.
Robin first visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1957 and attended his first Indianapolis 500 in 1959. In 1968, at the age of 18, he got to “stooge” for his driving hero Jim Hurtubise at Indy. Miller was hired for free to do odd jobs with the pit crew but was fired before the end of the month after he ruined the paint job on Hurtubise’s car. That same year, Miller was hired at The Indianapolis Star. His first duties included answering telephones in the sports department. A year later, he was moved into the sports department as a writer.
But it was those early days with the Pacers that formed him. In the book We Changed the Game, Robin described his start as a 19 year-old writer for the Indiana Pacers in 1969, “I wasn’t the beat reporter, I was the sidebar/feature guy.” The Pacers GM Mike Storen flew Miller to away games and put him up in his own hotel room. The savvy Storen recognized early that the enthusiastic young reporter’s stories would be the best (and cheapest) publicity that money could buy.
Robin recalled, “It was my entree into learning how to write, interview people, cuss, play poker, talk to a female and come of age. Slick taught me how to read a racing form and what a good poker face looked like…Because I looked twelve and acted fourteen, Bob Netolicky decided a cub reporter traveling all over the country needed a nickname so he borrowed the naive newsman from Superman and christened me Jimmy Olsen. Even though most of the players were only a few years older than me, I was a clueless virgin about the real world, yet those guys accepted me and took me to lunches, dinners, strip joints, bars, and even men’s clothing stores trying (against all odds) to make me hip.”
In the early 1970s, Miller drove in the USAC Midget series where he became friends with chief mechanic Bill Finley and driver Art Pollard. From 1971–78 (while still working at The Star), Miller began working on pit crews at the Indianapolis 500. It was common during that time for racing teams to hire extra freelance help for the Indy 500 due to the extended (month-long) work commitment. He was assigned to various jobs, such as the pit board and vent man, but never worked mechanically on the cars. Finley, one of the last true chief mechanics at Indianapolis, described Miller as “without a mechanical bone in his body.” Miller stated that the worst moment in his career came when Art Pollard was killed during practice for the Indy 500 in 1973.
In 1972, he bought his first race car from Andy Granatelli. He raced a Formula Ford in 1972, and then bought a midget car in 1974 from Gary Bettenhausen. He continued to compete in the USAC Midget series from 1975 to 1983 with his best race coming in 1980 when he qualified 5th out of 93 cars for the annual “Hut 100” at the Terre Haute Action Track, a dirt race that featured 33 starters in 11 rows of three like Indy and also sported several top Indy drivers of the time. He considered that race the highlight of his career, however, he blew his engine and dropped out. After about ten years, he quit driving due to his lack of mechanical knowledge, and massive debts.
During his 33 years at The Indianapolis Star, Miller became one of the nation’s best-known sports writers for Indy car racing, and one of the most polarizing figures in the field. After accusing A.J. Foyt of cheating in 1981, Foyt punched him, and the paper issued a retraction. Miller also challenged Bobby Knight, the Irsay family, girls’ basketball, and female golfers. However, his work at the Indy 500 is what Robin became known for.
Every May for 33 years, in addition to his daily columns, Miller had side gigs on WNAP-FM, WIBC, WTHR, and The Bob & Tom Show. Miller also wrote and reported on NASCAR, including extensive coverage of the Brickyard 400. Following the 1996 open-wheel split, Miller was highly critical of the Indy Racing League and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George. He lost his radio show on WIBC and television job at Channel 13 for his anti-George stance. In January 2001, Miller was fired from the Star. Miller worked as a racing writer/reporter at ESPN from 2001 to 2004. In 2004, Miller joined Speed as a writer and Indy Car “insider.” Starting in 2011, Miller was an analyst for IndyCar coverage on Versus/NBC Sports Network and later served on the NBC telecasts of the Indianapolis 500 after NBC gained rights to the race in 2019.
Miller announced he had terminal leukemia in July 2021 and died in Indianapolis a month later. At the time of his death, he was a correspondent and senior writer for Racer magazine and Web site, while also reporting on IndyCar Series broadcasts for NBCSN.
Longtime friend of Irvington Dave “The King” Wilson, who, like Miller worked at Q-95 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, recalled, “In 1993 One-Liners Comedy Club and Wilson’s Pub had just opened. Robin kidnapped the food critic at the Indianapolis Star and brought him to Greenwood to have lunch. The publicity from that article helped establish my business.” Dave added, “In 1995 he was co-hosting a sports talk show on WIBC. There was an opening for an afternoon drive show host. Robin recommended me and 1070 gave me a shot. I‘ll be forever grateful for Robin Miller’s friendship.” Dave closed by saying, “I hope there are Long’s donuts in heaven.”
Among Robin’s adopted Indiana Pacers family, no one knew him better than Bob Netolicky. For many years, Neto, Robin, Mel Daniels, and Coach Bobby “Slick” Leonard met for lunch at least once a month. “Robin joined us in our second year and we just adopted him as our own right away,” Neto said. “He went everywhere with us, including places he wasn’t even old enough to legally be in.” Neto’s friendship with Robin Miller lasted 55 years.
“Robin was part of the team, a member of the fraternity,” Neto added. “Robin danced to his own tune, he told it like it was. That’s why the Pacers and the racers stuck up for him because he told the truth.” But Neto noted that because of that, “at one time or another everyone wanted to kill him, even Slick, who didn’t like to be criticized by anyone.” However, Neto pointed out that eventually, after tempers cooled, Robin’s targets would always come to the same conclusion: Robin Miller told the truth.
I asked Bob, who now makes his home in Austin, Texas to be closer to his daughter Nicole and his grandchildren, when was the last time he saw Robin. “It was last May when I came into town for an event at the Speedway. I saw Robin at Charlie Brown’s in Speedway for lunch. He was doing great. He looked good. He was in remission from spine cancer and feeling fine.” Neto said. “Then Leukemia got hold of him and basically shut his body down. He had nothing left to fight it with. It took him quick. Gone way too soon.”
Neto closed by saying, “He was the perfect guy to write the book. He was there with us for the whole thing. They broke the mold when they made Robin. He was like our adopted child and I know the guys at the track feel the same way. I got the news of Robin’s passing the day after Jerry Harkness died.” Like Neto, Harkness was an original Pacer.
This brings us back to Robin Miller the writer. In his book “We changed the Game”, Robin stated, “There will never be anything like the ABA or those early Pacer days because everything today is too corporate, too professional, and too buttoned-down.” He might as well have written those lines to describe himself. There will never be another Robin Miller.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
