by By Tyler Jones
@TylerJonesLive
LAWRENCE, KS- Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills was honored Saturday for the proclamation of “Billy Mills Day,” and the renaming of South Middle School to Billy Mills Middle School in Lawrence. It marked the return for Mills to the city he went to high school and college at, the Haskell Institute (now known as Haskell Indian Nations University) and the University of Kansas.
Mills began the day with a name change ceremony at the middle school, which was followed by him being recognized at the Kansas-Iowa State football game. Mills says he looks forward to playing a major role in helping America come together, using the experiences and lessons he’s learned from traveling around the world. Mills went on to say, “We know the cause, we just have to solve the problem.”
With the name change to Billy Mills Middle School, Mills hopes that the school is used as a way to come together as one and correct the wrongs of the past, while choreographing a beautiful horizon for the future.
Mills used the platform to stress a healing for the nation’s divide. Mills said, “America needs people of color, women with opportunity, immigrants of the past and immigrants of the future to mature a full-fledged democracy that represents the sacredness of our flag.”
While attending KU, Billy was named an NCAA All-American cross-country runner three times, won the 1960 Big Eight Championship, and as a member of the track team, won the 1959 and 1960 Outdoor National Championships.
After graduating from KU with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1962, Mills joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Mills says that the Marine Corps was the very first place that he felt like he belonged. While serving in the Marines and qualifying for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Mills set a world record and became the only American to win an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000-meter race.
Mills was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984, received the KU Award for Distinguished Service in 1993, the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Obama in 2012, awarded the Theodore Roosevelt Award – the highest honor bestowed by the NCAA in 2014, and received the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015; and Mills founded the non-profit Running Strong for American Indian Youth, an organization that supports cultural programs and provides health and housing assistance for Native American communities.
Mills’ humanitarian work, perseverance, and conviction has made him a role model to all youth and an inspiration to countless others to follow your dreams.
