Services Set For Mickey Mills
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
(Mickey Mills photo courtesy of The Daily World)
Funeral services for legendary Academy of The Immaculate Conception and Opelousas Catholic athletic director and head football and baseball coach Mickey Mills are scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday inside St. Landry Catholic Church, according to Steve Dupuis, a former OCS player.
Visitation is scheduled Thursday from 2 pm until 8 pm at Lafond and Ardoin Funeral Home in Opelousas, with a rosary planned for 6 pm, Dupuis said in an email sent on Wednesday to St. Landry Now.com.
Remembrances for Mills will follow the rosary, Dupuis said.
On Friday retired Lafayette Diocese Bishop Michael Jarrell, an AIC graduate, will preside at the funeral mass which follows a 9 am church visitation.
Mills, who grew up in the Bellevue community south of Opelousas, was an all-state football player at AIC during the mid 1950’s and later played college football at Northwestern State.
In 1962 Mills became an assistant football coach and head baseball coach at AIC under then head coach and athletic director Joe Tuminello.
Mills’ became head football coach, head baseball coach and athletic director at AIC in 1966, a position that he held for over 20 years before retiring to enter private business.
Under Mills, Opelousas Catholic won the only state football championship at the school in 1974.
That championship followed two AIC state baseball championships in 1969 and 1970, followed by a runnerup appearance in 1971.
Mills was also responsible for expanding the Opelousas American Legion baseball program during the mid-1960’s when he coached the Opelousas Braves, which included AIC and other players from St. Landry Parish public schools to several district legion championships.
Following his retirement, Mills was selected to the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2021 Opelousas Catholic school officials named the football field house and school athletic complex after Mills.
An announcement of Mills’ death was also published Tuesday on the Opelousas Catholic school Facebook page.
