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The city of Llano was shocked Monday to learn of the death of Bill Miller, a world-class athlete turned coach turned Chamber of Commerce president.

Miller’s body was discovered on his property by the side of County Road 412 just before noon on Monday, not long after he had attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting in town. The Llano County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of death.

Bill Miller grew up in the small town of Winters, 40 miles south of Abilene, where he won the state 2A championship in the long jump in 1959. He earned All-American honors at McMurry in the early ‘60s, and was the first Texan to jump 26 feet. Although he narrowly missed going to the Olympics in both 1964 and 1968, he was briefly ranked in 1967 as the best jumper in the world, and beat eventual gold medalist and world record-holder Bob Beamon in several head-to-head competitions.

Miller became an assistant track coach at UT in 1971, and helped lead the team to five Southwest Conference championships. He married Gene Hall Reagor in 1999 and moved to Llano, where the couple offered guest lodging on their ranch. He has been very much involved with events in Llano, serving six years on the Chamber board, and twice being elected Chamber president.

Miller accumulated many honors during his career, most recently his induction two months ago into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame, which was the subject of a Llano News story by Art Dlugach on May 13.

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