This year’s inductees are: Coach Bill Hooper (In Memoriam), Coach Frank Bacy, Johnny Cotten (Class of 1956), Simon Clarich (Class of 1956), Anthony Hill (Class of 1964), Michael Anthony Hernandez (Class of 1992) and Marcos M. Flores (Class of 1992).
A brief bio on each athlete follows:
Coach Bill Hooper, Head football coach 1964-1969
Bill Hooper will be honored in memoriam for his outstanding contribution to the Buc spirit and lore. First, he was a first-assistant under legendary Coach Pete Ragus. When he took over as head coach in 1964, he had one of the state's hardest jobs to fill. He didn't skip a beat and soon he had the Bucs in the state playoffs ranked among Texas' top programs again. The Bucs advanced to the zone or state playoffs four years under Coach Hooper and were ranked as high as No. 4 in the state in 1968. Hooper's overall record was 40-25. The legacy Coach Hooper left the Bucs was that they had a standard to achieve every year. We were the Bucs from CC Miller High and we were expected to compete and compete hard. Under Coach Hooper, we did. Thanks Coach Hooper.
Hooper Record at Miller:
Coach Frank Bacy, 1982-1996
Frank Bacy was an assistant football coach and head track coach at Miller High School for 14 years before going on to serve at Ray High School and later serving as head football coach at Moody High School. During his tenure at Miller, he was named "Track and Field Coach of the Year" four times, sending a legion of athletes to the regional and state meets and instilling a sense of discipline and pride in the Bucs that lived up to the Buc spirit and lore. Coach Bacy headed both the boys' and girls' programs at Miller and instilled the sense of discipline, hard work and pride in both programs. When the Miller teams showed up at a track meet, everyone knew they were in trouble. Under Bacy, the Bucs won three district championships, finished as runner-up in regional four times and coached athletes at the state meet six consecutive years. He had athletes in the state track meet in nine of his 14 years at Miller, a mark that no one coach in CCISD or Corpus Christi can equal. In football, he was in charge of some of the most prolific offensive attacks in Buc history with several of his players going on to star at the collegiate and professional level.
Johnny Cotton was one of the most prolific track athletes in the history of Miller High School and went on to a stellar and record-setting college track career at the University of Texas. At Miller, he was part of the legendary district and regional championship mile relay team that finished second in state with a time of 3:19.1. At Miller, Johnny set several meet and school records. At the University of Texas, he was part of a record-setting relay team and set several personal records as well. He ran at all the major national track meets and was considered one of the best in the nation.
Simon Clarich was also one of Miller's all-time great track stars. In only two years at Miller, Simon established school records that stood the test of time under the cinder track conditions and was rated among the nation's top track stars in hurdle events. In 1956 he was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation in the 180-yard low hurdles, an event which sent him to regional and state competition with a best time of 19.3 seconds. Simon received a full track scholarship to McNeese Stte in Lake Charles, La., in 1957, bu transferred to Del Mar College. While running track for Del Mar College, he ran in the Border Olympics, then one of the premier meets in the nation, in Laredo, at Monterrey at El Tecnologico Invitational and the Texas Relays. He earned medals at every national meet he competed in and, perhaps more important, his records at Miller will never be broken.