Longtime activist, OU supporter E.Z. Million dies
E.Z. Million wanted Sooner- Longhorn game moved
By John Rohde
Published: October 27, 2009
Elmer Zen "E.Z.” Million, a multifaceted activist who pushed hard for the Oklahoma-Texas football game to be played in Norman every other year, died Saturday in his Norman home. He was 68.
A 2006 file photo of E.Z. Million, who was running for Lt. Governor. Photo provided by the candidate.
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A graduate of
Weatherford High School, Million became a Norman resident in 1957 and earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and master’s degree in engineering from OU.
He ran for public office on numerous occasions, but never won.
Million was a Republican nominee for state House District 44 in 1968 and 1970 and ran as an independent in 2000; was a Republican nominee for state Senate District 16 in 1973; was an
Oklahoma delegate in the 1980
Republican Convention in
Detroit.
He also ran as an independent in the lieutenant governor race in 2004; and as a retired computer consultant competed in the Norman mayoral race in 2007.
Million formed the
Sooner Chamber of Commerce in 1993 to promote local tourism and to get the OU-Texas football rivalry moved away from the
Cotton Bowl in
Dallas.
At the 2002
OU Board of Regents meeting in
Lawton, Million was granted five minutes to plead his case, but to no avail.
"No more sending $25 million of Oklahoma’s dollars southward,” Million said two years ago.
Born in
Moscow,
Idaho, in 1940, Million became paralyzed with polio at age 4 and at one point was confined to an iron lung machine.
Despite a miraculous recovery, his left arm had to be amputated when he was 19. His right leg also was affected, but he still played baritone horn in the OU marching band.
"He played golf and tennis as a one-armed man, and he was pretty good at both,” said Million’s son, Ted, who resides in
Durham, N.C. "Sometimes disabilities are what you allow them to be, and that was one of the things that was admirable in him. He didn’t always allow a disability to take over his life.”
Million’s catchy name was derived from his father’s name (Elmer) and his mother’s name (Zenna Belle).
"And people say, ‘Oh, your folks had a wonderful sense of humor,’” Million told the
Oklahoma Gazette in a 2004 story. "I said, ‘They didn’t have a sense of humor at all; they took his name, her name and that was it.’ And it’s amazing how many people ask if I changed my last name.”
E.Z. wasn’t the only family member with a memorable name.
Million said he had a great uncle from
Seattle named Tennyson Million, who went by the name Ten Million, signed his name "10,000,000” and was in "Ripley’s Believe It or Not” in the 1920s.
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