Skip to main content

Kayla Santiago interviews Jack Mills The 5th Annual ITL Eugene E. Parker Memorial Award Winner

Ric Serritella

The Eugene E. Parker Memorial Award honors the distinguished pro football agent who has dedicated a lifetime of service to the agent community.

The assembled football universe took a brief break for the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, to recognize and honor some of the top executives in the pro football industry on Wednesday, March 1st at the 14th Annual USI Insurance Holdings Inside The League Combine (ITL) Seminar Presented By American Tens are in! ITL founder Neil Stratton was MC for the event, which drew over 300 attendees from various segments of the football community.

The 5th Annual Eugene E. Parker Award was once again presented by his son, Brandon Parker of Vayner Sports. This year’s winner was Jack Mills of Shark Sports Management, an Oklahoma graduate who began his career at Colorado in the athletic administration before transitioning to the agent industry. Along the way he has represented clients such as Steve Owens, Eric Dickerson, George Rogers, Rashaan Salaam, Tony Bosselli, and Baker Mayfield, to name a few. Congratulations to Mr. Mills, whose gentlemanly nature and professionalism have been well-recognized in the industry for over 50 years!

All-Time Award Winners

2023 – Jack Mills

2022 – Angelo Wright

2021 – Mike Sullivan

2020 – Ray Anderson

2019 – Ralph Cindrich

Kayla Santiago

And for the people that don't know, what are you being awarded with today?

Jack:

Uh, I'm getting the Eugene Parker, uh, lifetime Achievement Award for service as an agent for players. And what does that mean to you to be honored tonight? Uh, well, it's actually real gratifying. I've done this for 55 years. I don't think anybody else is crazy enough to do it that long, but, uh, It's kind of an OR award that you can say is from your peers, and I think those are the most significant awards.

Um, and it just, um, I've enjoyed what I've done and I've had a lot of sat satisfaction with the clients I've represented, and, uh, so it's just nice to be recognized. What is the best client you've represented so far? I'm sure it's a lot, but which one has really panned out and really made it to the expectations that you thought and everybody thought?

Well, I've had a awful lot of really great players. the Hall of Fame people that I represented are, um, Eric Dickerson running back. Yep. Uh, Randall McDaniel, offensive Lineman, and then li this past class, Tony Belli and, uh, cliff Branch. Were in the last Hall of Fame class, so there's been many, many really outstanding players.

But, um, so I hate to say who's best, but there's been a lot of good ones.

Kayla: Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

Follow Kayla on Twitter