Enoch Josiah "Joe" Mills (July 23, 1880 – October 3, 1935) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach, college athletics administrator, author, naturalist, and hotelier. He served as the head football coach at

Fort Worth University Fort Worth University was a college in Fort Worth, Texas operated from 1881 until 1911. Founded as Texas Wesleyan College in 1881, and later renamed Fort Worth University in 1889, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church ...

from 1904 to 1906,

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

from 1908 to 1909, and the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

from 1918 to 1919.

Early life and athletics career

Mills was born and raised on farm near

Pleasanton, Kansas Pleasanton is a city in Linn County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,208. History In 1864, General Alfred Pleasonton defeated the Confederates in the Battle of Mine Creek near present-day Pleasant ...

. He was the brother of

Enos Mills Enos Abijah Mills (April 22, 1870 – September 21, 1922) was an American naturalist, author and homesteader. He was the main figure behind the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Enos Mills was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of ...

, naturalist, author, and homesteader. Mills played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at Colorado Agricultural College—now known as

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

— from 1899 to 1901. He also played baseball at Colorado Agricultural as a

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

in 1899 and 1901. Mills moved on to the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

, quarterbacking the football team in 1903. He was elected captain for following season, but left for

in 1904, where he served as captain and coach of the football team. He remained as football coach at Fort Worth for the 1905 and 1906 seasons before leaving in 1907 for Polytechnic College—now known as

Texas Wesleyan University Texas Wesleyan University is a private Methodist university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded in 1890 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth. Its mascot is th ...

—to serve as

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

. Mills married Ethel Steele, a former public school teacher in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, on May 18, 1908. Mills was hired as the

in 1908. He was the eighth head football coach at Baylor University, serving for two seasons, from 1908 to 1909, and compiling a record of 8–8. He was also the second head basketball coach at Baylor, coaching two seasons, from 1908 to 1910, and tallying a mark of 19–10. In addition, he was the head baseball coach at Baylor in 1909, amassing a record of 9–12.

Later life, death, and honors

Mills worked as a reporter for the '' Fort Worth Telegram'' and operated a number of resort hotels in Colorado. He helped to establish

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

in north-central

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Mills died on October 3, 1935, in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, after suffering a skull fracture in an automobile crash six days earlier. Joe Mills Mountain near

Estes Park, Colorado Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corr ...

in Rocky Mountain National Park is named for him.

Head coaching record

Football

References

1880 births 1935 deaths 20th-century American journalists American hoteliers American football quarterbacks American men's basketball players American naturalists Baseball outfielders Player-coaches Baylor Bears athletic directors Baylor Bears baseball coaches Baylor Bears football coaches Baylor Bears men's basketball coaches Colorado Buffaloes football coaches Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball coaches Colorado State Rams baseball players Colorado State Rams football players Colorado State Rams men's basketball players Denver Pioneers football players Texas Wesleyan Rams athletic directors Texas Wesleyan Rams baseball coaches Texas Wesleyan Rams football coaches Texas Wesleyan Rams men's basketball coaches People from Estes Park, Colorado People from Pleasanton, Kansas Sportspeople from the Kansas City metropolitan area Players of American football from Kansas Coaches of American football from Kansas Baseball coaches from Kansas Baseball players from Kansas Basketball coaches from Kansas Basketball players from Kansas Road incident deaths in Colorado {{1900s-collegefootball-coach-stub