IU Sports Broadcast Collection Bolstered By Donation From John Miley

The donation will give students at Indiana University's Media School access to audio and video of over 44,000 sports broadcasts.

John Miley donated his collection of sports broadcasts to the National Sports Journalism Center at The Media School on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. / photo by James Brosher, Indiana University

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University has received a donation that will aid its sports broadcasting program.

John Miley, 93, recently donated over 44,000 sports broadcasts to the National Sports Journalism Center at The Media School on Indiana University's Bloomington campus. Miley's collection features audio and video files from TV and radio sporting events dating all the way back to the 1930s.

According to a News at IU article, The Media School plans to use the collection as a resource to bolster its sports broadcasting courses and extracurricular programs related to sports broadcasting, such as Big Ten Plus and WIUX.

"Providing students with the ability to listen to the great sports broadcasters of past years will help their development as broadcasters and professionals," Galen Clavio, director of the National Sports Journalism Center at IU Bloomington, told News at IU.

The Media School plans to celebrate the collection, with Miley in attendance, on Sept. 16 at 1 p.m. ET at Franklin Hall.

Franklin Hall will also house a public display and computer access terminal where IU students and faculty can access the collection. Researchers and historians from outside IU will be able to request a guest login, according to the News at IU article.

Miley's collection includes recordings from all World Series game since 1954, every Super Bowl game, decades of Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500 races, as well as college and professional basketball, hockey, golf and more.

Miley grew up in Long Beach, Calif. and moved to Evansville, Ind. when he was 10 years old. He started collecting these files in 1947, and in 1977 his collection expanded as he began receiving tapes from a network of people around the country.

When it was time to find a permanent home for the collection, Miley consulted with IU alumnus Mark Cuban and was put in contact with Clavio, who is also the associate dean for undergraduate education and professor of sports media at The Media School. Miley also reached out to Don Fischer, the play-by-play announcer for Indiana men's basketball and football, who assisted him in making an audio file highlighting Indiana basketball.

“Having such a vast archive of sports broadcasts is of tremendous help to our students and their professional development, while also bolstering Indiana University’s reputation as a Research-1 Institution,” Clavio said. “We have a large sports broadcasting program filled with incredibly talented students. Providing them with the ability to listen to the great sports broadcasters of past years will help their development as broadcasters and professionals.”