When it comes to football, T.R. Miller Tiger football has always been different from other teams—different in a good way.
With such a rich tradition and legacy and six state championships, and the most wins in the 1990s, Brewton and T.R. Miller is mainly known for their football.
There is also one thing about T.R. Miller football that is known in this area, but probably not by many anywhere else.
While some teams have their last names on the back of their jerseys and the team name on the front, T.R. Miller’s jerseys have the name T.R. Miller on the back. Thought to be the only team in the state to have this feature.
But on Sept. 14, during the 2012 season, that will change for T.R. Miller—but only for one game.
“Next fall against Excel, we are going to do a reunion of T.R. Miller football and we are going to call this game, ‘our legacy,’” T.R. Miller Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said. “It is really going to have two parts to what we are going to do. First, we want it to be a reunion and want all the former T.R. Miller football players to come back for the game if they can. We are going to do our tailgate party at that time before the game. We are also going to have special T-shirts for the game that night. We usually try to do things like that at homecoming but there is always so much going on at homecoming. It makes it difficult, so we thought it would be different this way.”
Riggs said they want to celebrate all the success from over the year and the great players that have come through the program. That is where the different jersey comes in for the Tigers.
“We want to use this to raise funds for the athletic department,” Riggs said. “The primary way to do that is we are going to have the ‘jersey project.’ Each player on the team that night at the game is going to play for a former T.R. Miller football player. It could be their father, their brother, their neighbor or someone their acquainted with. It could be someone they just have respect for. But each player will chose someone for the night.”
Riggs said special jerseys will be ordered just for the game and each player will have the name of the person they are playing for on the back of their jersey.
“It could be the who name or just last name, we will deal with that later,” Riggs said. “We want it to be an exciting thing. We will wear black jerseys that night. But it will be the name of that player from the past on the current Tiger. I think it will be neat.”
Riggs said the players will have people support the jerseys called “jersey backers.”
“The back of our jerseys are pretty important,” Riggs said. “They say T.R. Miller on it and you rarely see anyone with the school on the back. Some may have it on the front, but rarely on the back and that is important. We are going to ask people in the month of May for two weeks to get people to back their jerseys. Basically, we want people to pledge money to back the jersey. Our goal is to get $200 of pledges for every jersey.”
Riggs hopes people who care about player or their family will give money to back the jersey.
“A lot of times, the person being played for might not be in that player’s family,” Riggs said. “We hope people will pledge money to the person’s name being worn that night in honor or in memory of the former player. Or you could a former player will pledge in support of their number being worn. Hopefully this will get some former players back and to help with the program.”
Riggs said after the game, the players will present the jersey to the player they played for.
“We hope that will be a good deal and something people will look forward to,” Riggs said. “We tried to do this on a weekend Alabama and Auburn do not play a big home game so people can come to the big reunion. We are also going to have a special program or something that night with the published name of a special roster of the former player and number and the person they are playing for and their number and all the people who pledged money to that number.”
The T.R. Miller quarterback club is mainly responsible for this project Riggs said and has other things planned to do later.
“After spring break, players will declare who they will play for,” Riggs said. “Then after that, we will go out in May with pledge cards and get money. Over the summer, club members will call older players. We just want all involved. One thing at T.R. Miller that makes us unique is our tradition of football. We want our former players back involved and to be honored and to help us make some money.”
Riggs said later that night, things will be up for sale including a special football with every former T.R. Miller quarterback’s signature on it.