Howard Banford Siler Jr. (June 18, 1945 – July 8, 2014) was an American bobsledder who competed from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Howard Siler won a bronze medal in the four-man bobsledding event at the 1969 FIBT World Championships in Lake Placid, New York.

[2] in 1985 Siler served as the United States team coach and also as chairman of the US Bobsled Federation Competition Committee.

[3] Siler later coached the Jamaican bobsleigh team that participated at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

[4] Unlike the fictional Blitzer, Siler was employed outside his sporting activities, as an insurance executive.