Coach Marguet Miller, the head coach of the West Los Angeles College football team, wants to spread his knowledge to others, but it is not his knowledge of football. Miller used his passion for Black History to create a podcast that shares facts about Black American achievements and the history of the African diaspora.
His podcast is called ‘Coach Miller History Recovery Specialist;’ it can be found on Spotify, Radio Public, and Anchor. Miller mentioned how his past players encouraged him to make the podcast.
In his series so far, Miller has talked about the Olmec Civilization, Otis Boykin inventing the pacemaker, Allensworth, and The Inkwell among other facts.
“I don’t have theories, I’m bringing up what the research had said with the experts who are archaeologists or anthropologists, with the people, at that time, what they wrote,” Miller said.
One of the several facts Miller shares is that California is named in honor of the Moorish queen Khalifa who ruled over an island called California in a fictional story published in 1492.
“There’s actually a painting in the Senate building in Sacramento on the fourth floor with a picture of a tall, amazon, Black woman and it says ‘the naming of California,’” Miller said.
Miller has also used his podcast to demystify common Black stereotypes. He shared that the late Rodney King used surfing as a form of therapy and how the earliest doctors came from Egypt.
The inception of the podcast came from a visit to the California African American Museum. After seeing exhibits on the Watts Rebellion and the L.A. Uprising, Miller wanted to see other parts of Black History in Los Angeles on display. He sent them a list of possible exhibits, including the achievements of Biddy Mason and the collections of businesses that were on Central Avenue.
“We have more to offer in L.A. … you should also inform the visitor what life was like for African Americans,” Miller said. “I’m gonna go ahead and make a podcast about this, I’m gonna send it out to everybody I know.”
Miller encourages listeners to investigate the topics that he brings up for themselves; he keeps his episodes to under 20 minutes long and puts music in the background to make for an easy listening experience.
“I think my voice could hold people’s attention,” Miller said. “They can drive in the car and listen to this.”
When Miller comes up with an idea for an episode, he will review books that he read on the subject matter and do more research prior to recording the episode.
“I make sure to get evidence and research,” he said. “I accumulate all the evidence and put it in some kind of order where it ties in.”
In his youth, Miller’s parents bought him a collection of encyclopedias that focused on Black history from a door-to-door salesman. At that time, Miller did not see a lot of Black representation on TV or in school; this ignited his passion for Black and African history.
“I was always reading about a lot of interesting things that African Americans did,” he said. “A short time ago … I found out a lot of other African Americans, they didn’t know about this history.”
Miller has coached at West L.A. College for 12 seasons; during that time, 186 of his student athletes transferred. In the past nine years, 93 of his student athletes graduated from a four-year university.
