APPLETON, Wis. — An Appleton man in his 90’s, who served in World War II, is putting a new twist on a 400-year-old game.

Gib Mlller creates cribbage boards by hand and hopes to get more people playing, including today’s youth.

“You kids, learn to play cribbage. It will sharpen your mind for the rest of your life,” said Miller.

At age 93, Miller keeps busy in his workshop. He’s been making cribbage boards for the past 25 years.

“My grandfather taught me how to play cribbage when I was ten years old. That’s a long time ago,” laughs Miller.

Miller creates custom shapes and themes to the boards. He’s also trying to modernize the game, which he calls Cribbage Plus.

“Get some fun added to it so it isn’t just the dull old game that came out of England, I don’t know, how many couple centuries ago,” said Miller. “You just play regular cribbage and do what the board tells you to do after that.”

He’s added sand traps to his golf themed game, penalty boxes to hockey, and a walk-off home run for baseball,

“You get a double, you can advance. If you’re caught in a double play, you have to back up one,” said Miller. “In between third base and home, if you swear at the umpire, you have to back up two.”

There’s no website for his Miller Creek Crafts. He doesn’t have an Etsy account. He sells from the shelf at Party & Print in Little Chute owned by Karen Anderson.

“He can customize any board, any way you want,” said Anderson.

Anderson calls Gib her personal hero. She started working with him after buying the store from her cousin.

“They were doing some things here before I bought the store so I kind of inherited Gib and we’re thrilled,” said Anderson.

Miller wants his boards to bring people together, interact, and spend less time looking at screens. Going after a younger crowd, he has felt pushback from cribbage purists.

“Some people like it and some of the older cribbage players think it’s awful. Because when you talk about having to move back, you never move back on cribbage boards, that can’t be,” said Miller. “They won’t even play the game but I think it adds a lot more fun to the game.”

Miller celebrated his 93rd birthday last week. This past summer he contracted COVID-19. He said it felt like he had a mild case and spent his quarantine time in his workshop.

“Keeps me busy. Keeps my mind working and I enjoy doing it. I like seeing people with a smile on their face,” said Miller.