Name a magical moment in sports, and John Miley likely has it documented.
His well-known collection of more than 44,000 audio and video recordings has been profiled in national publications. He has preserved epic Olympic moments, buzzer-beating NCAA basketball tournament finishes, thrilling Indianapolis 500 and Kentucky Derby races, and college football games, his favorite sport. Super Bowls? Miley has recordings of all 60. “And I have some really great golf,” he adds.
Pairing a recorder with his radio was a childhood obsession for John, now a spry 95. Miley kept taping while attending the University of Oklahoma and working as a petroleum engineer in Odessa, Texas. He kept taping after moving back to Evansville and while owning Evansville Title. His son and daughter recorded for the collection while living in other cities, and after the then-print publication The Sporting News profiled Miley in the 1970s, another 50 or so people across the country began contributing.
His baseball collection alone is jaw-dropping. Miley owns three versions of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run in 1974. He can dial up Don Mattingly’s first and last games with the New York Yankees, plus home and away broadcasts of each of the six grand slams the Evansville native clubbed in 1987. “Name something he did, and I probably have it,” Miley says.
Miley has been asked to produce compilation tapes, including of Notre Dame’s football team and the late Chicago Cubs broadcasting icon Harry Caray. The collection also has attracted the attention of major networks and media figures. “When I got to NBC and, later, to HBO, anytime we were doing historical stuff, one of my suggestions was, ‘Let me check with John Miley,’” longtime sportscaster Bob Costas told NPR in February 2025.
The Newburgh residence Miley shares with his wife, Carole, also contains her vast vintage doll collection, which she started upon receiving a dollhouse for Christmas in 1974.
Married 73 years, the Mileys have mutual admiration for each others’ passions. Carole’s doll collection “has won all kinds of honors,” John says. Carole, in turn, says John “needs to be doing something, and (recording) has filled his mind and time, and he’s been so successful in knowing how to put it together.”
Now, John is taking steps to ensure the memories live on. He shared some of his collection with the Library of Congress in 2011, and Indiana University’s Media School will receive the remainder. Most recordings are not kept, but as he points out, you never know when something remarkable might occur in sports: “I save something that I taped only if, in 10 years, I would want to come back and listen to it again.”
