74 minutes with Mills
I must admit that Chris Pereschuk, the former NJCAA All-American runner for Hagerstown Community College, does resemble Billy Mills, who remarkably won the 10,000-meter run at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
“When I was at HCC, I guess I pulled off some performances that reminded (then-HCC coach Mike Spinnler) of Billy Mills, and he actually called me ‘Billy Mills’ sometimes. He thought I looked a little like him, too.”
“But I don’t know if his coach ever had him do this workout four days before the Olympic Games,” Mills said to me in a recent phone interview. And he proceeded to tell me about running some crazy 200 out of the blocks in 23 seconds.
I called Mills at his home in California, just hoping to get a few minutes of his time, and got much more than I bargained for — 74 minutes to be exact, and a conversation I’ll never forget.
Mills — a Native American and the subject of the 1984 movie “Running Brave” — talked about all the racism and discrimination he had to overcome.
“I was caught between a white and black world in sports,” he said.
He talked about going back to Tokyo 20 years after his Olympic triumph with his wife Pat and finally taking the victory lap he was denied in 1964. The stadium was empty, but he didn’t care. His wife clapped, and he cried.
“It was much more meaningful,” Mills said.
He even talked about how McCarthyism was the worst era of the 20th century.
But mostly he talked about running, and the impact it’s had on his life.
“Running was such a beautiful thing to me,” he said. “It probably saved me from committing suicide.”
But mostly we talked about his gold-medal race, and his gold medal.
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “For me it was a gift.”
He never won another one. He never even made another Olympic appearance.
“I decided in 1972, I’m going to start early and make the team,” Mills said. “I was on an 18-mile run on a Sunday morning. I stopped at 11 miles and said to myself, ‘If I desire, I can still be world class.’
“But I walked away. I walked back to my car and then told my wife.”
He talked about his athletic future.
“I just turned 70,” he said. “I want to get my golf game down in the next decade.”
But he still closely follows world-class distance running.
He’s the only American to have ever won Olympic gold in the 10,000.
“I’ll have somebody join me before too long,” he said. “I think it would be awesome to have a female join me.”
He likes Kara Goucher’s chances.
“She runs to be the best in the world,” he said.
And Mills also talked about his upcoming trip to Chambersburg, Pa., to be the official starter and awards presenter at the first 5K Race for the Nation on Aug. 30.
Which brings us back to Pereschuk, the race director who was ambitious enough to get Mills to come.
“It’ll be interesting to finally meet the man himself,” Pereschuk said. “I’m definitely psyched to meet him.”
So am I.
