As the Summer Olympics approach, I have memories of previous Olympics returning to mind.
A recent charity appeal in the mail brought back one of my earliest memories from the Summer Olympics in 1964, one I remember watching on our family’s small black and white TV set.
The athlete I am remembering is Billy Mills, who shocked everyone by winning the 10,000-meter race when the Olympic games were last in Tokyo. Billy Mill’s story is so full of improbables it seems closer to fiction than reality.
Billy Mills is an Oglala Lakota Sioux who was born on the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota, one of the poorest communities in the country. At age 12, Billy was sent to an orphanage in Kansas. Running became Billy’s way of coping with what life had handed to him.
He went on to run track at the University of Kansas, but then quit the sport. After serving in the Marine Corps, he returned to running and made the Olympic team in 1964.
Mills wasn’t expected to come close to winning that race. After all, the world record holder, Ron Clarke, was in the field as was Mohamad Gammoudi from Tunisia, another favorite. Those two were fighting it out on the last lap when Billy Mills came from an outside lane and passed them to win the lengthy race by a mere three yards. His world record performance is considered one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history.
Mills could have become one of those athletes who retires to live off that one moment of glory. But there is another race that Billy Mills has been running.
He helped found the Running Strong for American Indian Youth organization and is its national spokesperson. On the road more than 300 days a year, Mills talks to Native American communities and youth everywhere on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and respecting one’s heritage. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Billy Mills the Presidential Citizen’s Medal.
The heart of Billy Mills’ message is that everyone has a gift, but that gift has to be met with passion. And if you want to see what passion looks like, I invite you to watch Billy Mills on the internet. First, watch the film of his victory at the Olympics. There is a golden moment when Mills passes Ron Clarke, the favorite, and Clarke looks over in shock at Mills. Clarke’s thought—“Who the heck is this?”—is written all over his face.
But if you want to be truly inspired, I encourage you to listen to one of the more recent interviews with Mills in which he talks about the Running Strong for American Indian Youth program. The passion that propelled him to win that race in 1964 is now focused on helping Native American youth.
Passion is contagious. That is what Billy Mills counts on as he talks with young Native Americans, a group with alarming rates of depression and suicide.
But the rest of us can also benefit from Mills’ passion. The Running Strong for American Indian Youth program is currently raising money to build a youth center on the Pine Ridge reservation. The center will house a gym, a teaching kitchen, music facilities, and various classrooms.
Give yourself a feel-good moment by helping Billy Mills cross the finish line on his latest race.
David Carlson of Franklin is a professor emeritus of philosophy and religion. Send comments to [email protected].
