Do-lt-Yourself Sportswriter

Puffing only lightly despite his 44 years, the man in the sneakers, sweatshirt and shorts jogged determinedly around Long Island's Roosevelt Raceway, a half-mile track ordinarily reserved for horses. At the early-morning hour, the trotters were out exercising too, pulling balloon-tired practice sulkies, passing the two-legged runner in a flurry of neighs, snorts and hooves. The man barely noticed. Lou Miller, New York World-Telegram and Sun sportswriter, was warming up for work.

Four miles or so later, flushed and refreshed ("I'm as strong as any horse"), Miller exercised half a dozen horses for their owners, got them around the track in creditable training times (2:15 to 2:50 for two laps, against an average race speed of 2:05). The Miller workout service has been in steady demand since a fortnight ago, when, entered for fun in a night race at Roosevelt, he brought a 10-1 shot home second.

Miller's place performance at Roosevelt was only one highlight of a sportswriting career that few of his colleagues would care to copy. A physical cultist who breathes deeply from habit, runs three to ten miles and does two hours of calisthenics every day, Lou Miller covers the world of sports by getting into the act.

He scrimmaged with the Navy football team before the Sugar Bowl game in 1954, once put first-string Navy Tackle Jim Royer out of commission with an injured knee. He interviewed Milers Glenn Cunningham, Wes Santee and John Landy by running alongside--a practice that Santee, after losing a race in 1955, publicly deplored: "That crazy Miller ran me into the ground." In his prime, he sparred with Olympic Welterweight Hank Herring, and he is credited with pulling New York Yankee Pitcher Bob Turley out of a slump early in the 1957 season by showing him how to relax by breathing deeply before each pitch. Said Turley, who won 21 games the next year: "I owe it all to Lou Miller."

Although Sportswriter Miller's athletic activities are a pastime, it is one that he turns to good professional use. Example: once, after jogging around Detroit's Briggs Stadium, he ran into another early-morning riser, Boston Red Sox Outfielder Ted Williams, who is notorious for his profane inability to say anything printable to sportswriters. But in the companionship of their informal conversation, Williams gave Lou Miller an exclusive interview.

After 27 athletic years on the World-Telegram, solid (5 ft. 11 1/2in., 185 lbs.). Bronx-born Lou Miller shows few signs of wear. He can still run a mile in 4 1/2 min.

--when he is not teaching the rudiments of football to neighborhood kids in Verona, N.J., where he lives. Roosevelt track officials were so impressed by his turf showing that they plan to let him try again. Lou Miller is ready for that--or almost anything else. "When I exercise, I feel just like a colt," he says, flexing a muscle or two. "I'll keep on running till I'm 100--and then I'll run beyond that."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.