Olympian Billy Mills to keynote IU South Bend's 'Conversations on Race'

Sixth 'Conversation' Nov. 15 at Northside Hall

By Kathleen Borlik

Mills, who is an Oglala Sioux Indian, will speak on global unity through global diversity during the one-day conference that examines the importance of open minds and acceptance. The Office of Campus Diversity sponsors the event.

Mills was born in South Dakota in 1938. He was orphaned at the age of 12 and sent to a boarding school. Later, he began to run as part of a training program to become a boxer. The boxing fell to the wayside as his natural talent for long distance running became apparent. His running abilities opened the doors to the University of Kansas where he won All-American honors in cross country in 1958 and 1959, the individual title in the Big Eight Conference for cross-country in 1960 and the conference title for the two-mile race in 1961. The Kansas team won the NCAA outdoor national championships in 1959 and 1960. He entered the Marines Corps and briefly stopped running. Later, he returned to the track to qualify for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Mills stunned the world at the Olympics by beating the two favored runners in the 10,000 meter race, a race which no American had ever won in the Olympics. In the final lap of the 25-lap race, he found a burst of energy and sprinted past the favorites, Australian Ron Clarke and Tunisian Mohammad Gammoudi. He crossed the finish line in 28 minutes, 24 seconds--a “personal best” by nearly a minute.

The crowd was stunned. He was not one of the noted runners and a reporter ran up to him after the race to ask, “Who are you?” Some sports experts describe the race as one of the greatest Olympic moments.

The story was later brought to the screen in the 1984 film Running Brave, starring Robbie Benson.

After the Olympics, Mills set several additional running records before retiring. Today, he is a businessman, author, motivational speaker and spokesman for Running Strong for American Indian Youth, a national fund-raising organization which works with projects on Indian reservations.

http://www.iusb.edu/~admissio/convrace/HomePage.html