RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Al Miller Honored

 
An e-mail from Kyle Ealy of Cedar Rapids:
 
Ron,
 
I wanted to thank you again for your help in contacting former Cedar Rapids Gazette sportswriter Al Miller.
 
Al Miller
Al made the long drive from Flushing, MI to be honored as a inductee into the 2013 Hawkeye Downs Speedway "Wall of Fame". Having covered the sport of auto racing at Hawkeye Downs and Eastern Iowa from 1963 to 1975, it was an honor that was long overdue in my opinion, which is why I nominated him.
 
It was amazing to see the people who came out to honor Al. As former race car drivers showed up that evening, most of them sought out Al to talk to him for the first time in over 35 years and offer their congratulations. These were the same drivers that Al wrote about two times a week, for 13 years in his column, "Al Miller on Racing".
 
A writer from the Gazette interviewed Al that same evening and there was a nice article on him on the front page of the Saturday morning paper.
 
As he was quoted in the Gazette, "I'm really honored. I took the job just for something to do and I had a love affair with it. I told Gus Schrader [a now-deceased former Gazette sports editor], 'Hey, I'll go out there every Friday night.'"
 
He was very humbled and as he left that evening, he thanked me for contacting him, the invitation and the honor.
 
Thanks again, Ron.
 
Kyle Ealy
 
[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Good hearing from you, Kyle, and I'm glad things worked out well with Al Miller. I'm glad he's now a member of the Hawkeye Downs Wall of Fame].