At the conclusion of a turbulent month in Georgetown football, Tommy Mills was hired as head coach of the Hoyas on Dec. 31, 1929 and signed to a three year contract. Three years later, his time had passed.

Following Lou Little's sudden resignation on Dec. 9, a battle ensued between the alumni advisory board (which had supported Little) and the Jesuit moderators of athletics, who grew tired of Little's annual demand for higher pay. The four man alumni board resigned en masse, and moderator Joseph O. Brien S.J. was tasked to address the choice of 60 candidates for the search, including two Georgetown assistants, North Carolina coach Chuck Collins, and Elmer Layden, the Duquesne head coach and a former assistant under Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne. The recommendation by Rockne for one of his other assistants tipped the balance for Mills, who was hired for a three year contract at one-half the cost of what Little signed for at Columbia.

Mills, a former head coach at Creighton and Beloit, followed the Rockne system of offense called the "box" formation, where the halfback lined up aside the quarterback and two backs behind them. He brought along three former Notre Dame players as assistants to teach the system at Georgetown, but found that he didn't have the right players to do so. He was called to task by the South Bend Tribune for traveling to the campus to recruit Notre Dame freshmen to transfer to Georgetown, but in the end stayed with what he had.

An injury plagued 5-5 season in 1930 sent alarms ringing among alumni, given that Georgetown had only suffered one losing season since 1914. A larger issue was looming off the gridiron, however.

Later that year The University announced to its coaches that it would no longer award athletic scholarships beginning in 1931. Assistant coaches began to look elsewhere, including John (Clipper) Smith to North Carolina State and Frank Leahy to Michigan State. It was Leahy, the future Hall of Fame coach at Boston College and Notre Dame, who remarked that "the authorities at Georgetown are evidencing a coolness toward football" following his departure.

Mills continued drilling the Rockne system into his players, but injuries were so common that he later ended in-season scrimmages altogether. Lacking skill in executing the Rockne offense, the Georgetown offense ground to a halt in the 1931 season. After a pair of perfunctory wins over small college opponents to open the season, the Hoyas scored just 28 points in the final eight games of the season, finishing 4-5-1.

With 26 seniors departing from the 1931 team, and without scholarships for its incoming recruits, things would not improve in 1932. An early season loss to Western Maryland College and a shutout loss to Detroit at Griffith Stadium put pressure on the University to make a change.

"Georgetown's football sun is setting," wrote the Post's Bob Considine that season, "by its own volition."

Upon learning that the school was in negotiations with former Georgetown player Jack Hagerty to take over the head coaching job at the conclusion of his term, Mills and his two assistants resigned en masse on Oct. 30. "For some time I have been quite conscious of the fact that Georgetown has been dissatisfied with the record of her football team," Mills said. "For myself, I wish to state that I have done my best under the conditions."

He added "I wish my successor all the luck in the world." Mills became the first and only Georgetown football coach to leave in the middle of a season.

Georgetown did not appear sad to see Mills leave. Rev. John Kehoe, S.J., the new athletic moderator, was quoted as saying that "I am sorry to see him leave but his resignation rather settled things, didn't it?"

Tommy Mills coached two seasons at Arkansas State before returning to Notre Dame, where he served as director of the campus field house. He died of a heart attack in 1944 at the age of 60.

Year	Record	Pct.	Home	Away
1930	5-5	0.500	3-2	2-3
1931	4-5-1	0.421	3-1	1-4-1
1932	2-3	0.667	2-1	0-2
Totals	11-13-1	0.448	8-4	3-9-1