Gene "Shorty" Miller was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame

College Football Hall of Fame

The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...

 in 1974.

Miller played quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 at Penn State

Penn State Nittany Lions football

The Penn State Nittany Lions football team represents the Pennsylvania State University in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big Ten Conference. It is one of the most tradition-rich and storied college football programs in the...

 from 1910–1913, missing only one game during his tenure and amassing a 23-8-2 record. His short stature (5' 5") and stubby legs earned him the nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 "The Meteroic Midget." Miller would go on to start all four seasons at Penn State, missing just one game. In 1913, he rushed for 250 yards against Carnegie Tech University — a Penn State single-game rushing record that lasted 68 years.

Miller was the last true freshman to start at quarterback and open a season for Penn State at that position, until Robert Bolden was selected by coach Joe Paterno

Joe Paterno

Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno is a former college football coach who was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions for 46 years from 1966 through 2011. Paterno, nicknamed "JoePa," holds the record for the most victories by an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision football coach with...

 to open the Nittany Lions 2010 season

2010 Penn State Nittany Lions football team

The 2010 Penn State Nittany Lions football team represented the Pennsylvania State University in the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Joe Paterno and played its home games in Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. They were members of the Big Ten Conference...

.