For Miller, who is a lifelong Clemson athletics fan, the answer was a no-brainer, and he went on to man the cannon at the majority of home football games over the next four seasons.
In both wins and losses over the last four years, Miller and the cannon were consistent.
So is the military support from Clemson athletics.
Once a year, Clemson football hosts its annual Military Appreciation Game, where the Tigers wear symbolic purple jerseys. That day, there is a parade with ROTC members and active duty units, a flyover ahead of kickoff and an armed forces medley at halftime.
A parachutist drops in at Memorial Stadium before the start of one Military Day Appreciation game at Clemson.
File/Richard Shiro/AP
The tradition stems from Clemson’s founding as a military school in 1889, when university leaders believed “a military atmosphere produced the highest academic excellence,” and dubbed ‘patriotism’ one of the school’s six core values.
“To have a university whose core value is still patriotism, is extremely rare for a non-military academy school,” Miller said. “So just like the way that athletics is continuously paying respects to its history and never forgetting its past and honoring those who gave it all.”
Since its founding, that patriotism has been woven into Clemson’s identity — from 6,500 alumni serving in World War II to university ring ceremonies featuring a presentation from the late Colonel Ben Skardon, a Bataan Death March survivor.
Now, Miller is fully a part of that rich history.
After his completion of ROTC training last school year, the Cornelius, N.C., native headed to Fort Still, Okla., as a second lieutenant in the army. After a few months of training, he will be stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C., as a field artillery officer for the 82nd Airborne Division.
Plainly put, Miller is training to drop out of airplanes and provide firepower in active combat, a career much more dangerous than firing a lone cannon at football games.
Before he left Clemson, however, Miller also got to extend Bennett’s cannon tradition to baseball games. The first firing this season came in a ‘Heroes Weekend’ series against Army in February that featured several military celebrations.