The legacy of Stanford running backs stretches back to Ernie Nevers and extends forward to include names such as Darin Nelson, Tommy Vardell, Toby Gerhart, and Stepfan Taylor. Most of those players would be described as power backs, but Glyn Milburn, unquestionably one of the greatest players in Stanford history, was more dash and flash than smash and crash. (Check out this highlight video for evidence.)
Milburn arrived as a transfer from Oklahoma in 1990, and over the course of the next three seasons he made a huge impact on the college football world and left his mark on the Stanford record book. Perhaps the most versatile player in Cardinal history, Milburn holds the Stanford record for all-purpose yards in a single game (379) as well as the two highest season totals, 2234 in 1992 and 2222 in 1990. Not surprisingly, he was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.
Last week Mr. Milburn was kind enough to spend some time talking to me about all this, as well as what brought him to Stanford in the first place, and his journey through the NFL and beyond after leaving the Farm. Enjoy...
Go Mighty Card:
I wanted to start before you got to Stanford, back when you still at Santa Monica High School and not yet the starting running back. What was your high school football experience like, and when did you start thinking you might be able to play college football?
Glyn Milburn:
It came very late in my high school career, quite honestly, as a sophomore in high school. My high school, Santa Monica High School, was only a tenth through twelfth grade school at the time when I entered, so I came in as a fourteen-year-old sophomore. I was younger, undersized, and I remember meeting the high school varsity coach. The first time I met him I was still a ninth grader, and my father brought me to the school. I watched them go through their spring drills, and I remember going up to the coach after practice and saying, “Hi, my name is Glyn Milburn. I’m going to be going to your school next year.” The coach looked at me up and down and said, “Well, I hope you’re fast,” because I wasn’t very big.
So when I got to Santa Monica High School I went out for the junior varsity team. I was very fast, but I was small and undersized, and as a result, didn’t get many looks at playing time. At practice I thought I did pretty well, but it seemed to me there were clearly other players that had established themselves through coming up through the ranks in Santa Monica and Malibu at the time, so I never really played as a sophomore. But for some reason, maybe the varsity coaches saw something in me, by the time I was a junior I moved up to varsity and they put me on defense as a defensive back. I asked if I could go out for the running back position as well, even though I had never really played as a sophomore. They let me compete. I was still small as a junior, but I grew a little bit. I was an adequate defensive back, probably unmemorable in many ways. I think I had maybe three interceptions, but I was athletic enough to be an all-league defensive back. But what was a new for me, they had a punt return competition. Whoever dropped the fewest punts -- I guess that’s the default in high school -- whoever dropped the fewest punts would be the starting punt returner and kick returner, too. I was able to practice that, and I dropped the fewest punts so I was the punt returner. I scored against our rival school, I think the second week, I took a punt return for a touchdown. In my mind I figured, well, if I’m not going to be the starting running back, at least I can have an opportunity to carry the ball on punts and kicks.
I didn’t play at all as a running back in our first game. The second game was against our rivals, Palisades High School. In that particular game, early in the game the starting running back missed an assignment. The coach got mad at him and pulled him out. “Milburn, get in there!” And the first touch was a sweep to the left. I got the ball and scored a 75-yard touchdown. First touch I ever had in varsity football, and I scored a touchdown.
GMC:
That bodes well!
Milburn:
That game I also had a punt return touchdown, I carried six times and scored two touchdowns, had over a hundred yards rushing, and I’m thinking, wow, this is pretty cool to play a little more running back. But the next week I was right back at defensive back and didn’t really play much more at running back that year. But I scored a couple of punt returns and was an all-league defensive back. Between my junior and senior year I had a conversation with our coach, Tebb Kusserow. He was a very no-nonsense, principled coach, and ran a tough USC-style offense -- student body right, student body left. We passed every now and then, but we were a running team. Strong defense, strong running game. I wasn’t really the prototypical running back, size-wise, but the coach said, “Look, if you work hard, you learn your assignments, and you’re tough, you’ll have an opportunity to compete.” For me, it was one of these lessons of being patient, but being in a position where if you earn your way over time, you’ll have an opportunity. It’s not given to you, but perhaps it’s an opportunity that will afford you a chance later down the line. For me it was my senior year. I earned the starting position as a senior, but no one had really heard of me outside of that one game against Palisades as a junior.
Our first game, I’m still playing defensive back at this time, and we’re playing against St. Paul, which was a good program. They drive the ball down, but we get an interception at the fifteen yard line. The first play is a penalty, and we get knocked back and we’re at the ten yard line. First play of the season, hand off to Milburn, you guess what happened.
GMC:
Ninety yards?
Milburn:
Ninety-yard touchdown, first touch of the season. My junior and senior seasons, the first touches were long touchdowns. But unlike my junior year, my senior year was one where the fairy tale continued. That first week of the season I had over 240 yards rushing, three touchdowns, and I’m the CIF Player of the Week, so now I’m being noticed not just by my high school or the rival school, but by the CIF. Who is this Milburn? He came out of nowhere. And the next week I had five touchdowns, I had a good game, and we won, and that continued on. The next week I had 270 yards, the next week I had 380 yards, and all the sudden I’m starting to have over 200 yards and four touchdowns or more, and we’re winning games, and we’re undefeated until the last game of the season. We played Hawthorne High School with Curtis Conway. They had a very talented team, it was for the league championship, and they beat us. That was the only game we lost all year.
But at that point I had become a legitimate running back in my coaches’ eyes and also recognized in the state because I led the state in rushing and touchdowns. I had been just happy to be on the football field as a sophomore, but as a senior I was being recognized nationally. It was at that point that I thought maybe I had a chance to play college football, but as a sophomore I had no aspirations. I had lofty dreams about being one of those guys one day, but I was just happy to be on the field. So it kind of really happened for me rapidly, from out of nowhere. Somebody looking outside in would say, “Wow, you came out of nowhere.”
GMC:
A quick question about that high school time. Russell White was your same year, correct?
Milburn:
He was a year younger.
GMC:
But at the time of your senior year, he was one of the biggest stars in Southern California.
Millburn:
Correct. He was the Southern California Player of the Year. Russell White and I were the two All-CIF backs.
GMC:
Were you aware of what he was doing? Did you have any sense of competition within yourself -- I’ve got to be as good as he is -- anything like that?
Milburn:
Well, sure. I would read the L.A. Times and every week you’d see the teams and players that were excelling every week, and Crespi at that time was a powerhouse, and Russell White clearly was their star player as a running back. He had played multiple years -- I had just been on the scene for one year -- so he was kind of the standard by which the other running backs were measured. He was getting national recognition as being one of the best ever according to many of the articles. Obviously at that time in high school you’re not dwelling on one person. Every week during the season you’re just trying to play the best you can and win for your team, but naturally a little part of you in the back of your mind is saying, well, I’m confident that I’m one of the best, and there’s this pride -- our league is tougher, our league is better, my team could maybe beat your team -- there’s always that internal competition.
GMC:
College recruiting is an awful lot different today as compared to twenty-five years ago.
Milburn (laughing):
Oh, yeah.
GMC:
What was the process like for you, and which schools did you consider?
Milburn:
Santa Monica High School was always kind of a pipeline for USC, so there was a lot of pressure. My high school coaches were USC fans. But interestingly, because I was a good student, many of my friends who weren’t football players were interested in Stanford University, so that’s where I would’ve liked to have gone if I had the opportunity. Even as a sophomore I thought, wow, if one day I could go there, that would give me great opportunities, but at the time I didn’t know how I could get there. My parents couldn’t have afforded to send me to Stanford University. My job was just -- if there was ever an opportunity -- to put myself in that position by taking the right classes and getting good enough scores and grades to have a chance. So in the back of my mind I always said if there were ever an opportunity, I wouldn’t pass that up -- which is the irony of ironies in my story.
So on the first day that the coaches could actually come on the high school campus, the first person was Larry Smith, the head coach at USC. He was there. Terry Donahue, the head coach at UCLA, and the Pac-10 coaches. I remember the University of Arizona. Duane Akina, who was the defensive back coach at Arizona back then, then a long-time assistant coach at Texas, now he’s back...
GMC:
At Stanford.
Milburn:
Yeah. Duane Akina has, ironically, kind of come full circle. And Don James at Washington. Those were the coaches that were actually on campus during the early part of the recruiting period. And that time, it’s all a blur. You’re just looking and saying, oh, this is great. These coaches are taking notice of some kid from Santa Monica High School. But in terms of evaluation, I really didn’t distinguish any school outside of Stanford University, quite honestly. The interest from other schools was flattering. At that time Stanford wasn’t a very strong football program. I remember when Dave Baldwin, who was the assistant coach that was responsible for recruiting Southern California, had come on campus. I remember having a conversation with him, and he was talking about Stanford, and I said, “I’m really interested in your school.” He almost paused -- are you serious, or are you just pulling my leg? I said, “I’m really serious about your school.” So that began a dialogue with Stanford that lasted through the recruiting process.
My first recruiting trip was the University of Washington. They were a good, competitive program every year. They had a strong defense, and they had a senior running back, so there would be an opportunity there. You’re kind of looking at all those things -- it’s on the west coast, my family could visit and watch games more easily than going back east. Those were some of the factors. With USC, it’s right around the corner, there’s a history, there’s the pipeline of players from my high school going there, my coaches love it, we play the same offense as them, so all those things. But being a west sider, I personally liked UCLA better at that time than USC, and I think UCLA was better back then.
GMC:
Yeah, they were in the midst of quite a run at that time.
Milburn:
Right. So all those factors were playing in. I went to Notre Dame for a recruiting trip. They were a powerhouse. Lou Holtz was a relatively new coach. That year they played West Virginia and won the national championship. Went undefeated. Those were all things in the back of my mind. They had a strong recruiting class, they were on TV every week, but the cold weather was also one of those things I didn’t quite like, growing up in Los Angeles.
Also, my father had been taking me to the University of Oklahoma football camp, so that was also kind of a default. Going into my senior year, they were the only school that said, if you run for a thousand yards, we’ll offer you a scholarship. They had seen me as an athlete from twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old. So they said, well, maybe this is a diamond in the rough. Even though he’s not playing in the field as much, he could be a prototypical wishbone halfback. So they had an ongoing relationship from the camp, and obviously my father was very involved with that process, so I took a trip there as well. I never took a fifth trip. I had already visited USC and UCLA as unofficial visits... I decided not to go on the fifth trip because I was exhausted with the process and kind of knew in my mind that I always wanted to go to Stanford, so I didn’t want to waste the time and energy.
That led up to my senior year. I remember going away and getting away from my house because all these coaches were calling the house and wanting to put their last pitch in. I just wanted to get as far away from that as possible so I could clear my head and make a decision and tell my parents. I remember coming back and Stanford was the decision that I came up with -- easily. Why not Stanford? They weren’t a really good football team at the time, but...
GMC:
Let me ask you something really quick. The answer to that -- Why not Stanford? -- at that time, if you had aspirations of playing in the NFL, if that’s what your motivation was, then Oklahoma would have made a lot more sense than Stanford.
Milburn:
Well, yes, on the surface it would. That’s where on the outside looking in, you’d say, Oklahoma -- national power, top five every year -- and Stanford, they’re struggling to win three games a year at that time, not going to a bowl was more of a likelihood than not. The coaching situation was shaky. But when I really started to look at it, I realized Oklahoma had a lot of guys in the pros, but how many were running backs? Not many. The wishbone is not really a prototypical system for developing skills that you need at the pro level. So I looked at that and realized I’d be getting exposure, but none of the players that I followed watching Sooner games were going to the pros because none of them caught a pass in their careers. They blocked and ran a sweep, and that was pretty much what they did. That’s great when you’re playing in that system where your athletes are talented, and speed is everything, but everybody in the pros is going to be talented and fast. If you’re not reading defenses and running pass routes and showing that diversity, it just didn’t work. I remember watching Darin Nelson. That was kind of an inspiration for me. When he came out of Stanford he had virtually every Pac-10 record and had a successful NFL career. My father was a Viking fan, I was a Viking fan growing up. I remember watching the NFL draft back when only the insiders would watch the draft. I remember when the Vikings selected Darin Nelson in the first round. I still remember the loud "Oh, no!" from Bill Walsh, who was running the draft for the 49ers. I think Bill Walsh wanted to draft Darin Nelson because he fit so perfectly in that West Coast offense. So that’s what was kind of one of the inspirations for me. Maybe I could do what Darin Nelson did at Stanford and still have a great education. That was the thinking at the time.
GMC:
I was a student at Stanford when you arrived, and people were definitely excited. The story that I heard at the time, and I wonder if you can verify this because I was never sure if what true or not...
Milburn:
Sure.
GMC:
...was that you wanted to sign with Stanford all the time, that was your decision, but because you weren’t old enough to sign the letter of intent, and because your father wanted you to go to Oklahoma, that’s where you ended up. When you were old enough to make the decision for yourself, you transferred. Is there any truth to that?
Milburn:
That’s the story, that’s the story. I wanted to go to Stanford, and at the time my father didn’t want me to go to Stanford for obvious reasons from a football standpoint. At the time he was thinking down the line in terms of athletics. He didn’t want his kid, as a running back, to play in a program where I wasn't going to get exposure or I might get hurt and not have the success that I could have other places. I understand the motivation now, but that was not the way I was looking at it then. At the time, I wanted to go there, but I didn’t get the support at home that I felt would support the decision.
I remember going to the pep rally at the school. The Stanford coaches are there at my high school, and I sign this letter in front of the reporters, and no one’s there but me. It’s odd to think back to that. I already knew why they weren’t there. There wasn’t the support for Stanford back then.
GMC:
This was as a high school senior, signing your letter of intent?
Milburn:
Yes.
GMC:
So you originally signed with Stanford?
Milburn:
I did. I signed a letter of intent. But because I was only sixteen years old, it was invalid. I just did a ceremonial signature at the school and the Stanford coaches gave me the FedEx envelope and told me to go home and get it signed. When they had the home visit there wasn’t the warmest reception, from my father especially. The coaches thought it was simply a procedure. Yeah, they’re not happy, but you’ve already made your decision. Just put it in the FedEx and mail it in. But that night, who rings the doorbell? It’s the running backs coach from Oklahoma. Then the next night, then the next night... That Stanford letter never got signed.
GMC:
What was the reaction like from the Stanford coaches?
Milburn:
They were disappointed. I had had some contact with Jack Elway, the head coach, but it was really Dave Baldwin who was the main person that I communicated with. And they were clearly disappointed, because it was one of those things where I honestly believed I was going to Stanford. I had told them the whole time. I called them and said, “I’m going to your school.” And they responded, “Yes! Awesome! We’ll be down there.” And then to hear only a couple of days later that I’m not going to go and I’m going to end up going to Oklahoma was clearly a disappointment for their recruiting class, I’m sure. At that time I was a big recruit for their class, and to be not going -- they clearly didn’t like it, but they were classy about it. I remember Dave Baldwin just saying, “We understand, and clearly we’d love to have you here, and if things can change at some point we would welcome you back.” That was really the only conversation I ever had, but I remember it being a really tough situation for me to have to make that call.
GMC:
I’m sure. I’m sure at that age that was difficult. So Barry Switzer was the head coach then at Oklahoma, correct?
Milburn:
Correct.
GMC:
When you eventually left Oklahoma, how was he with that?
Milburn:
Similar. Barry Switzer, I had known since the camp, for a number of years. They were great recruiters, and they ran a program that brought in the best athletes from around the country. They had their pick. He never wanted to lose anything. Barry Switzer was very competitive in many senses of the word, and I had performed well for the team. Going into what would’ve been my sophomore year, I was going to have an opportunity to have a lot of playing time. I actually went through spring football...
GMC:
At the end of your freshman year?
Milburn:
I played my freshman year -- they had asked me to redshirt, but I really already had my heart set [on leaving]. In my mind I knew what I would like to do, I just didn’t know the full plan at the time. I said I’m gonna play to get myself an opportunity to not lose two years of eligibility if I leave. They clearly wanted me to redshirt, but I played. After that I kept my head down, I didn’t say anything, I kept everything out of the public eye. Even with my roommate, I never told my roommate anything about what I had intentions of doing. I never kept any [transfer] papers in my room, I kept them at a professor’s office on the other side of campus. I communicated with my high school coach to send my information, I didn’t send it from home. I didn’t do anything where it would give any kind of hint that I was leaving.
GMC:
So you were just waiting to turn 18?
Milburn:
I was waiting to turn 18, to reapply and get all my paperwork in place, and then once that was done on the Stanford side, I then went to Coach Switzer.
GMC:
And as you said, he was disappointed, but at that point... I suppose he could’ve chosen to not release you?
Milburn:
Yeah, there was an attempt there, looking back. What will your parents say? What will your father say? But ultimately, once I stepped on the Stanford campus, they released me. I think perhaps, I don’t know this for certain, perhaps there was a feeling that I wouldn’t follow through with that decision, but I was intent on following through with it.
GMC:
And what did your parents say?
Milburn:
I think my mom generally was supportive. My father, it took him a little bit longer to be supportive. I don’t think that he really believed that Stanford would ever have the type of program, because of their academic reputation... He felt like it would be a mistake. Naturally, once I got there, and once I started to have success as a player, things warmed up. He warmed up to the idea. I never wanted him to be the blame, publicly, for what happened. I think things turned out ultimately the way they were supposed to. Part of my growth process and maturation was probably having to go through something like this and having to make a decision and stick to it even though it wasn’t an easy one to make.
GMC:
So you arrived at Stanford in 1989 and started playing in 1990, correct? What was the atmosphere like around the team under Coach Denny Green?
Milburn:
I don’t know how it was before, I came in the first year, but Denny Green was really about a new attitude. Everything was about establishing a toughness, establishing a buy-in from the players, a commitment to being the best, a belief system that never settled for just being mediocre. Just being happy that you’re there to get an education was not acceptable, and he was really changing the culture of the team in a lot of ways. I think every coach probably goes through that challenge of trying to establish an identity with his team. For me looking back I remember Tyrone Willingham, a no-nonsense coach, principled coach, demonstrating everything and expecting you to do it better than he showed and not tolerating mistakes. That was our running back group. Brian Billick, a no-nonsense receivers coach who was going to demand perfection from his receiving corps, not taking excuses about being at Stanford. That was our receivers coach. Ron Turner, who was installing the offense and continuing to follow Denny Green, the head person who was establishing this mentality of being tough and not settling for mediocrity at any level. Demanding that, and if not getting the buy-in would make some tough decisions -- not playing players who hadn’t fully bought into the program. And that was a difference for a lot of players. Coming in and watching this, having a chance to see this in practice and in games, was refreshing. The perception of Stanford football was very much finesse. Quarterback University. You’re going to have to beat other teams with trickery and finesse instead of lining up and just beating them person to person. That was the perception at the time.
GMC:
You were a part of one of the greatest upsets in Stanford history, when the Cardinal beat #1 ranked Notre Dame in South Bend. What do you remember about that game?
Milburn:
I remember walking into the locker room before the game, getting dressed and thinking, they have this sign that says “Play Like a Champion Today.” They’re known for everybody touching that sign. I remember walking out on the field saying there’s history here. I remember my recruiting trip there. They really play up this “wake up the echoes” and all the legendary people who walked out of that locker room, the Heisman Trophy winners and so forth. I remember saying, you know what? We’re going to walk on the same field and play like a champion today. We can do something that people are gonna remember.
It was the first time I had played that far east, ever. It was a perfect weather day. We were playing on NBC at the time. Everybody remembers Rocket Ismail and Ricky Watters and Rick Mirer and Jerome Bettis and all these players. Derek Brown. They had all these players... We’re walking on the same field and nobody’s going to give us any chance of winning this game. You know what? Dennis Green had already planted the seed. There’s a new mentality, and we can do it. We just have to play mistake-free football. I just remember, “Play like a champion today.” And we did. We surely did. We played our best game of the year that game. The interesting part is I think we lost to San Jose State the game before, which is a rivalry game, and we lost to them at home. That was probably as disappointing a game as you can play, so we had hit bottom. We had hit rock bottom. We didn’t have a winning record, clearly. We had maybe won one game. We weren’t ranked. No one in their right mind would’ve picked us to win the game, outside of the people in the locker room saying, you know what? We have nothing to lose, but we can play mistake-free football and win the game. And that’s what we did. They made probably every mistake that they could make; we didn’t. Part of the lore of the game is that... any team on any given Sunday, right? Or on any given Saturday, in our case. A team that plays the best on that day can beat a better team if they’re not playing on all cylinders, and they clearly weren’t and we were. That’s what happened on that day.
GMC:
I have to ask you about your first experience playing in Big Game. The 1990 game was one of the greatest Big Games ever, best remembered for the miracle finish, but John Hopkins would never have had a chance to kick that game-winning field goal had it not been for your conference-record 379 total yards. What do you remember from that game?
Milburn:
First year, first Big Game. I remember the week leading up to it -- all the newspaper articles, all the lore -- and even many of the Stanford alums who talked about The Play. That’s what you remember about Big Game. For me, growing up in Los Angeles, you remember The Play, you remember this razzle-dazzle, lateral play that beats Stanford and Stanford loses out on a chance to go to a bowl game, which was a big thing for Stanford football at that time. These are the games that you have to win. If you win any games, you have to beat Cal. And so for us, that was our bowl game as well. We had a losing record. We had the chance of maybe going 5-6, I think. It was a respectability game for us. Cal was clearly a better team, they had a better record, I think they were going to a bowl game already. Again, I think they underestimated us on that day. For us, we were building momentum. I think we ended much better than we started that season. After Notre Dame we had a lull playing against ranked teams, and at the end of the season we got on a little bit of a winning streak. We were clicking on all cylinders heading into that game, and we played well. For me personally, it was one of those games where we knew they were gonna blitz and put eight men on the line, and there were opportunities, if you get through that first wave, to make some yards. And things worked. We were playing well, we were passing the ball well, we were running the ball well, we were moving the ball. The end of the game is what people remember, but I remember Russell White had a great game. We were playing against a bowl-eligible team and playing toe to toe with them.
GMC:
I’m glad you mentioned Russell White, because I wanted to ask you about him. It’s kind of coming back again to your high school days. He had a great game, he had a phenomenal game as well. I know first and foremost you want to win, but was there any sense of wanting to compete against Russell White, especially during the game when that was kind of what was going on?
Milburn:
I can say that I probably thought about it a little bit leading up to the game. During the game you’re just in the moment and you’re thinking about the next play. Preparation is only leading up to the moment, so during the game I didn’t think about the fact that it was Russell White, I’m playing against Russell White, I have to outperform him today. I remember he was the talk of high school football in Southern California during my senior year. I set the records, but yet he got the recognition. Their team ended up doing better, but they never played against some of the teams we played. Those kinds of things you’re thinking of in the back of your mind, but during the game it’s Cal vs. Stanford. If they didn’t have Russell White I would’ve had the same approach during the game.
GMC:
During your last year Bill Walsh arrived. What was that transition like going from Denny Green to Bill Walsh. Bill Walsh was already a football legend at the time. What was it like playing for him?
Milburn:
It was a surreal experience because, number one, the timing of his coming to Stanford that second time was out of nowhere.
GMC:
Right, completely out of nowhere.
Milburn:
No one expected it. No one expected it. I thought it was going to be between Ron Turner and Willie Shaw. I remember being on a small players’ committee talking with Willie Shaw and Ron Turner making their pitch about being the head coach to some of the players. And then all the sudden just a few days later we’re having a press conference announcing Bill Walsh as the new Stanford head coach. Sadly, we had these relationships with our coaches that had been under Dennis Green, but ultimately when you get Bill Walsh, it’s almost like you’re getting LeBron James as your starting guard on your high school basketball team. You’ve got the best in the world at what he does coaching your team, so naturally everyone was enthusiastic about that decision that happened to be perfect timing for my senior year. And obviously Bill Walsh being a legend coming back to a place where he had success early in his career before the 49ers was a great, great situation.
GMC:
There aren’t too many players in today’s game who are as versatile as you were. I can’t remember too many players who started on offense, returned punts, and returned kickoffs the way you did. Was that type of workload difficult? What were the benefits of that for you as a player?
Milburn:
The benefits were clearly that doing all of those things you get a lot of yards. [Laughter.] The second thing is you have the ball in your hands, so there’s an opportunity to do some things that can help your team. Field position is one of those things that is often times an underappreciated aspect of the game. You don’t score touchdowns with field position, but you have an opportunity to score touchdowns with field position. And then looking at later in my professional career, those things were very much a part of how I’m remembered as a professional. Being versatile had its benefits that way. The downside is that you’re never going to be perfect. The typical thousand-yard runner typically is not doing all of those things. The typical thousand-yard receiver isn’t doing multiple things. The typical returner doesn’t play offense or defense exclusively, either. So you miss out on having an excellent stat sheet in one particular area because the sum of what you do collectively is what you’re know for, versus having one thing that you shine at. And maybe that’s the player that I was always going to be, but looking back that’s probably a downside of being an all-purpose player. You’re a master of none, a jack of all trades kind of player. You’re a utility player, using a baseball analogy. You’re hitting singles and doubles, but you’re not hitting home runs. That’s not what sells tickets in many ways, but it’s really effective and important in the overall scheme of the game.
GMC:
That’s interesting. Earlier today I watched a clip on YouTube, I hope you’ve seen it. It’s a highlight video of you against the Seattle Seahawks when you set the NFL record for single-game total yardage. Have you seen this video?
Milburn:
I’ve seen it, I’ve actually seen it.
GMC:
What was interesting, as I watched it I’m thinking in my head, okay, he’s got all these yards, but I don’t know if you scored a touchdown in that game.
Milburn:
I didn’t score. I didn’t score a single touchdown that whole game.
GMC:
What struck me is that you had a lot of really good punt returns, but they were for 25 or 30 yards. And the same thing, you had a lot of long runs, but no touchdowns. I was kind of like you’re saying -- lots of singles and doubles that added up to an awful lot.
Milburn:
Right. That’s pretty much how my football career was professionally, and I would say in college, too. There were more big plays, more touchdowns from returns, more runs from scrimmage, but when you look at the season there’s 500 yards receiving, there’s 700 yards rushing, there’s 800 yards of kick returns, there’s 400 yards of punt returns. There’s not this one standout stat in one particular area. You’re good in a lot of areas, but not exceptional in any one area. If perhaps one of those or two of those were taken away, then maybe one of those could be converted to something else. Maybe I’m a thousand-yard rusher if I’m not returning kicks and punts. Maybe I have more receiving yards if I’m not doing the returns. Maybe if I focused more on kick returns -- I never really took the kick returns seriously, because I knew I would have to run the ball. All of those things are things you look back on, but at the time you don’t really think about it.
GMC:
So when you were drafted did you expect that your NFL career would play out like that, or did you see yourself as more of a featured back?
Milburn:
No, I never considered myself as a featured back. I considered myself more as how I played in Denver. My rookie year I didn’t return kickoffs, I returned punts only, I was an exclusive third-down back, and I was our two-minute drill running back. That’s how I envisioned my entire career going, and that’s pretty much how it went my first three years.
GMC:
There was a year when you caught 70 balls, right?
Milburn:
Yeah, I caught 77 balls my second year. That was the last year Wade Phillips was the head coach. Jim Fossel was our offensive coordinator. He was the one who really liked throwing the ball to running backs, and I was a mismatch for a linebacker coming out of the backfield, so I caught a lot of those option routes out of the backfield or flank patterns. I just outflanked the linebacker. So those were effective for me. And even my third year, I caught fewer passes but we had a better team and probably more balance with receivers and running backs. When I was traded to Detroit, I went to a completely different system where they had one running back in Barry Sanders -- I don’t know if he caught many passes, if any -- and a three receiver set with one running back. So there was no real fit for somebody that played in the offensive system that I had in Denver. So I had to evolve as a player and find a niche, and that, for me, became the kick return role.
GMC:
You did take that niche and become one of the best punt returners in the league and went to the Pro Bowl a couple of times. Were you comfortable with that? When you retired after the 2001 season, were you comfortable with your career?
Milburn:
Yeah, I was. Again, it’s a business, but it’s also a childhood passion. You play and enjoy it, and you want to play as long as you can and still be healthy. For me, I was able to achieve both of those objectives. Every player kind of looks back and says, if I didn’t get traded, I could’ve maybe won two Super Bowls in Denver. That’s one of those regrets I have. I went to a couple Pro Bowls, but I never won a Super Bowl ring. The teams that I played for after Denver never got that opportunity, so that’s one of those regrets that I look back on. It would’ve been nice to have won a championship. That’s one of those goals that you have, you want to hold up that trophy one day. But other than that, I look back... I scored a touchdown in the NFL. I went to a Pro Bowl. I played a long time, more than the average, so I can’t complain about any of it.
GMC:
I know you did a lot of interesting things after the NFL. Can you briefly walk me through that a little bit?
Milburn:
Sure. After the NFL I got involved in the Arena Football League and became a team owner and ran a number of teams in our league. I was on the Arena Football League board of directors, many of the committees, and many of these were with NFL figures like Bud Adams, Tom Benson, Arthur Blank, John Elway, Ron Jaworski, and also Jon Bon Jovi. I collaborated with many of them on different league initiatives. So that lasted for eight years. I also invested in a number of different businesses in real estate and technology, but primarily the Arena Football League was where I spent most of my time for eight years after leaving the NFL. Staying close to sports was always something that I wanted to do, but after 2010 our league went dark. We suspended the season at the end of 2010, so in 2011 we didn’t play. Our league and our teams sold off many of our assets and we didn’t know where the future of the league was going to go. Living in Austin, Texas, at that time, it was, okay, now what? So I came back to California. I had a real estate investment here in Long Beach, but I still stayed close to sports. At that time AEG was involved in putting together an NFL stadium proposal for downtown Los Angeles, and I got involved in their lobbying efforts for getting the stadium, and while flying back and forth to Sacramento that’s where I first started having conversations about getting involved in city government. That’s what ultimately led me to joining the mayor’s business team, which is basically the business development office for the city of Los Angeles. We have four people on our team, but we basically work amongst different sectors. My sectors are sports, obviously; tourism, which is dealing with the convention center and airport tourism and so forth; fashion and apparel, which is a large part of the culture of Los Angeles, especially downtown; and then film and entertainment, which, again, are important industries for the city and the region, which have their own sets of challenges that Sacramento has had a large hand in helping to change. Then I also do manufacturing in our office, which is an all-encompassing area. Manufacturing isn’t a sector, per se, but I work on a lot of our federal grant proposals dealing with manufacturing and advanced manufacturing.
GMC:
You mentioned sports. Are we ever going to see an NFL team here in Los Angeles?
Milburn:
[Laughing] I had a hunch that question was going to be asked! We’re hopeful, we’re always hopeful. But to the NFL’s credit, it has to be the right deal and the right timing. And so far, we haven’t seen that right deal or right timing materialize. As a city representative, we’re always supportive of that. We think that regionally things like the Super Bowl create tremendous economic impact. But the city itself is not part of that negotiation directly. These are going to be private investor and NFL decisions ultimately. They’re going to make the decisions on where they want to be, when they want to be there, and there are only 32 [franchises]. And of those 32, there’s only going to be a handful of those that are even in the discussion. The NFL has not had an L.A. team since 1994, so we’re approaching 20 years of not having the NFL, and the city hasn’t imploded.
GMC:
Nor has the NFL.
Milburn:
And then the NFL has done nothing but grow, so clearly we understand that no one’s going to earn their political stripes by trying to get an NFL team at any particular time in the near future. It’s something that we monitor. We recognize that tourism and the businesses that support sports are important to the city and the region. Things like the BCS Championship and the Rose Bowl created lots of economic impact -- hotel rooms and restaurants and souvenirs. Vendors are all happy about those types of things in Los Angeles, similar to the Grammys and other awards shows. So we closely monitor all of these opportunities that come our way. We definitely like the NFL. Personally, there’s been over a generation that has not seen an NFL team in our city, and personally I’d love to see that change.
GMC:
I want to close with a couple of questions about Stanford. We hear a lot about the legacy of quarterbacks at Stanford, but there’s also a rich history of running backs. Aside from you, that includes people like Darin Nelson, Brad Muster, Tommy Vardell, whom you played with, Toby Gerhart, and Stepfan Taylor more recently. Do you have any connection with that group? Is there a camaraderie that comes from playing that position at Stanford?
Milburn:
I’m sure it’s similar in terms of the quarterbacks. The quarterbacks who played in different eras, there’s not an ongoing dialogue between these players of different eras, but there’s a respect. Obviously Tommy Vardell and I played together, we crossed paths. We were actually roommates on the road. I’ll always have a tremendous amount of respect for Tommy as a person, as well as what he did on the football field. There’s no surprise that he’s been successful at whatever he’s done because of the person he is. But as a running back, following Stanford over the years and seeing the likes of Toby Gerhart breaking virtually every record at Stanford as a running back and seeing what Darin Nelson began, this chain of running backs, it’s been great to see. Recently, the way that David Shaw and Jim Harbaugh have brought Stanford back, the program’s at its height, better than it’s ever been. The consistency has been great to see. It’s no longer just considered Quarterback U, it’s a team that’s known as being a tough, disciplined program. That’s what's great to see. The running back is an important fixture in that. Now you look every year there’s another player, or every few years, there’s another player that comes around and continues this chain. You’re not gonna see, you’re not even gonna see the Darin Nelsons and Tommy Vardells and Glyn Milburns [in the record books] the way that program has gone, because now you’re seeing this new wave of backs that are playing at such a high level every year. Stepfan Taylor is the leading rusher, and probably if you poll most college football historians, that wouldn’t be the first answer you’d get. They’d say Darin Nelson or Tommy Vardell or Toby Gerhart, but that’s a credit to the way the program has developed and the consistency of what they’ve done.
GMC:
Finally, what’s your connection to the university and the program now? Do you get to any games or back to campus at all?
Milburn:
Yeah, I get back every now and then. I’ve been married for fourteen years, and we have two young kids. My daughter’s ten years old, my son’s eight, so they’re just now getting involved with sports in the last couple of years, my daughter especially, my son just recently. It’s given me more of an opportunity to get up to Stanford with them to see it, and they’re starting to get excited and recognize that Stanford is actually a good team, to actually care that Stanford’s a good team. So, yeah, it gives me more of an opportunity to get up there. I try to go up there for at least one or two games a year, and the game down here. I went to the Rose Bowl last year, I went up for one game, and USC down here. Obviously having David Shaw as the coach clearly is great, because we were friends, we’ve been friends. Even when I played in the NFL he was an assistant coach. When I played the Raiders I remember us having conversations. Throughout his career I’ve seen him grow, and it’s great to see someone who you played with as a classmate and a teammate and then as a fellow colleague in the NFL, and see him land in a place like Stanford, and then have the success he’s been able to have. It’s just great to see, so being supportive of that is something I’m committed to doing.
Previous Cardinal Conversations:
Damon Dunn -- 7/04/2012
Darin Nelson -- 7/13/2012
Tommy Vardell -- 6/28/2013
