On July 30, 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was still the President and JFK was a Senator, a young man with a golden voice named Van Miller took his place behind the microphone at old War Memorial Stadium to call play-by-play for the Buffalo Bills’ inaugural game of the AFL, an exhibition against the old Boston Patriots.

On December 27, 43 ½ years and nearly 700 game later, a 76-year-old Miller will call his final game for the Bills against - as fate would have it - the New England Patriots. Miller has called every Bills game, except for several years in the ’70s when his station lost the broadcast rights.

“The Bills have been a labor love, and I’ll miss it very, very much,” he says. “(But) change is inevitable. I have a marvelous partner in John Murphy. He’s been the color man for 16 years, and he’ll do a great job in play-by-play.”

Curt Smith, an author of two books on broadcasting - Voices of the Game and Of Mikes and Men - believes Miller’s 37 years are the longest tenure in pro football history. “There are very few constants in sports today,” Smith says. “He’s one of them.”

Baseball’s Vin Scully will begin his 55th consecutive year as the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I believe that’s the Cadillac of longevity,” Smith says. “Van has that attribute that’s priceless in a broadcaster - wearability. He wears well.”

In his 55 years in the business, Miller has indeed worn well. He has earned legend status in Western New York by doing everything imaginable behind the microphone. Besides his years as the Voice of the Bills, Miller has done Buffalo Braves basketball, Niagra basketball (“Every game that Calvin Murphy played”), Buffalo Bisons baseball (when a young catcher named Johnny Bench played), University of Buffalo football and basketball, TV anchor jobs, and, in his early years, high school sports of all kinds, pro wrestling, soap box derbies, quiz shows, auto racing, commercials and even big-band shows.

Miller might well be the Cal Ripken of sports broadcasting. He estimates he has called more than 2,500 games - not including all the high school games he’s done - and played sick in a few but never missed a game. “I once did five high school football games, one after the other, in one day in the sectional playoffs,” he says proudly.

While his eyesight isn’t as sharp as it once was - a factor in his decision to retire - the golden voice has remained untarnished. “The voice is the strongest part of the human body,” Miller says. “A guy gets gray, and he stores a little fat up front, ‘gets a Budweiser tumor,’ but I don’t think the speaking voice is affected by age. Lowell Thomas sounded the same at 80 as he did when he was 50.”
The day Buffalo’s broadcasting history turned was the day Miller signed on with WBEN radio and television as a summer replacement in the 50's. “I worked 43 years without taking a day off, and they never told me I had a full-time job,” Miller says with a laugh.

His first regular-season Bills game was at the Polo Grounds against the New York Titans. “I was put behind the goal post in the baseball press box,” he says, “and I couldn’t see past the 20-yard line. All I could do is watch the chain gang, and I watched the guy with the down marker to know how far the play went for. The Bills lost 27-3 and, wouldn’t you know it, every point was scored at the far end of the field.”

Some other Miller moments:
Most lasting memory: “You’d have to go back to the ’64- ’65 AFL championship teams.” he says. “That’s the last time a major league team from Western New York or Buffalo ever won the last game of the season.”

The Greatest Game: “Without question, the comeback game,” he says, referring to the Jan. 3, 1993 playoff game. “They were down 35-3 against the Oilers in the third quarter and came back and won in overtime. That record will be broken right after Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak is broken.”

Favorite Bills Player: “There’s so many great ones. (’60s running back) Cookie Gilchrist was a real character. He once had people selling Cookie Gilchrist earmuffs at a game. When we kicked off that day, it was 69 degrees!”

Memory of the AFL: “They did some crazy things in those early days. The Patriots originated a charter - there were only 35 players on a roster then - they flew into Buffalo, picked up the Bills, then flew to Denver, where we dropped off the Patriots for a game in Denver and we flew on to Oakland to play the Raiders. Can you imagine Paul Tagliabue if he had two teams on one airplane? He’d have heart attack.”

Favorite Coach: “Lou Saban, a dear friend who coached those (’60s) championship teams. He left after those winning years. He told (owner) Ralph (C. Wilson Jr.) ‘Ralph, I’ve lost the team,’ and Ralph said, ‘where did they go?’”

What will you miss the most? “To me there’s nothing but radio play-by-play. It’s such a greater challenge (than TV). You have to build the drama when the team is driving and time is running out. It’s so much more fun than TV.”

What will you miss the least? “I suppose the travel. You know, my Social Security number is 4 (referring to longevity)...But my back hurts me 24 hours a day now. I’ve tried everything and nothing has helped.”

All-Time greatest Bill? “You have to put Jim Kelly up there, Bruce Smith, Gil Christ, O.J. Simpson. I don’t think I could ever speak to (O.J.) Now, but as a football player he was magnificent.”

Through it all, though, Miller’s never lived and died with the wins and losses.

“There are so many more important things in life,” he says. “The only thing I want on my condo (tombstone) out at Mount Olivet is, ‘It’s only a game.’”