John Milburn’s journey from Down Under to Boulder City

John Milburn has been a fixture in Boulder City for nearly 60 years, known best as a teacher and coach.

But had it not been for a strong-willed mother who knew what was best for him, he could very well still be living Down Under.

Born and raised in Australia, Milburn came to the United State just before his 19th birthday. But prior to that, he was good enough of a basketball player to not only make the Australian National Team, he was named to the 1960 Olympic squad.

But through word of mouth, his talents would get back to the coaching staff at the University of Oregon, who offered him a scholarship to play basketball.

“No one believed me back then that I had gotten a basketball scholarship because I’m not tall,” he said, laughing.

Milburn, who described himself back then as a very shy, mild-mannered kid, was kind of “pushed into” leaving Australia for college.

“I remember sitting on the plane, with a one-way ticket that cost $1,000 in 1961, thinking ‘What the hell am I doing?’” he said. “My goal was to play in the Olympics but suddenly I got thrust into college life. My mother thought this was a great opportunity for me. I was not a very industrious kid – I just wanted to play basketball. I hate to say it was traumatic, but for me it was, to be plucked out of my nice, safe life and be stuck in a new one.”

Family, friends and his fellow Aussie teammates helped raise money for the flight through bake sales, exhibition basketball games and raffles because they all knew this was a great opportunity for him, he said.

On the other end of that one flight was Eugene, Oregon. While he was a great player and Olympic bound, at that time Australian colleges and universities did not offer sports in the way they do in the United States. So, the opportunity to play college basketball in his native land was not there. He had to do that in his adopted one.

“Basketball was different here than it was in Australia,” he said. “Aside from that, I didn’t even realize I had to take classes. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. But after a year, I realized I wasn’t going to go to college in Australia and could get a degree in Oregon. Basketball then became not quite as important.”

By his senior year he was no longer playing college basketball and would eventually get a degree in general science and earned his teaching certificate.

He married his first wife just after graduation and back then it was difficult attracting teachers to Nevada. Without even having filled out an application, Milburn was offered a contract to teach in Boulder City. But since he didn’t fill out an application, the school district was unaware that he was not an American citizen.

“You could teach if you were not a citizen, but you had to jump through a bunch of hoops,” he said. “So legally they couldn’t pay me. They didn’t know what to do. It took them until January to get the mess straightened out and I had five paychecks waiting for me.”

It didn’t take long before he teamed up with David Shay Sr. to create a coaching partnership that to this day is still synonymous with Boulder City basketball.

Shay started teaching and coaching one year prior to Milburn. But during that first year at the school, Milburn said he had no desire to coach.

“A few of my chemistry students asked, ‘Mr. Milburn, we’re going down to the gym and play some basketball. Have you ever played?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ They invited me down because they thought they were going whip up on the teacher. Afterward they all said, ‘Wow, you can play. You should be playing in the pros.’”

The following school year he was asked to coach junior high basketball and declined the offer. He eventually accepted and a couple of years later, Shay asked him to help with the junior varsity squad. That was the first step in the Shay-Milburn coaching era that between the boys’ and girls’ teams produced eight state championships over two decades.

He said their coaching styles greatly differed but, in their case, it worked because they were yin to the other’s yang.

“He was a great coach and deservedly is in the Hall of Fame,” he said, referring to the Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Association. “I had a wonderful time being his assistant. Back then the boys and girls played at different times of the year, so we were able to coach both. But then they put them in the same season.

“Since both of our sons were coming up in basketball, we knew we didn’t want to coach our children, so we gave up the boys and we coached the girls. And wouldn’t you know it, both of our girls took up basketball and we ended up coaching them.”

When talking about Shay, Milburn said, “I want to give him full credit. He has always been good about including me whenever there’s something written or said about our coaching days. I admire his ability and knowledge tremendously. David and I really worked well together. But again, credit goes to him. I was just an assistant.”

After retiring in the early 1990s, Milburn, now 80, went on to teach and coach for another 11 years in Las Vegas before officially turning in his chalk and lesson book. These days, he and his wife of 30 years, Christine, enjoy their life in Boulder City and their family, which includes his two children, Bo and Summer. He also enjoys golf, swimming and is a member of the Boulder City Sunrise Rotary.

He had quite the scare two years ago when he was told he had cancer but like he did on the court for all those years, he battled it and won.

When asked if the itch to coach is still there, Milburn said while it was for a time, it has since been scratched.

“What I miss is that you learn a lot,” he said. “Sometimes you get the itch because you know so much. Fortunately, the game has changed a lot over the years, so I don’t regret not coaching as much.

“What I love, though, is seeing former players and students. Many teachers over the years didn’t want to live in the same town as their students, but not me. To be honest I’m horrible with names but I’m remarkably good about remembering if I had a student in one of my classes. I’m pretty proud of that.”

Ron Eland is editor of the Boulder City Review. He can be reached at reland@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523.