LUMBEE NEWS
On Thursday, November 12th Gold Medalist Billy Mills will meet with students and parents at Gray’s Creek High School.
The event will start at 6pm. This event is being held in celebration of American Indian Heritage Month.
For more information on Gold Medalist.
Directions to school
The event is sponsored by The Dream Catcher Project, Office of Indian Education, Cumberland County Schools, for more information contact Trudy Locklear/Director or Darlene Ransom/Coordinator (910) 678-2792.
Short Bio of Billy Mills
Born June 30, 1938 in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Billy Mills is an Oglala Sioux Indian whose given Native-American name is Loves His Country. Although an outstanding long distance runner, Mills' accomplishment at the 1964 Summer Olympic games in Tokyo, Japan stands as one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports.
Mills grew up on an Oglala Sioux Indian reservation and was orphaned at the age of 12. He first became involved with distance running while attending the Haskell Institute, an Indian school in the city of Lawrence, Kansas. He had taken up running as part of a rigorous training program to become a boxer. However, he abandoned boxing in favor of running. His talent and hard work made him a natural at several distance events.
Mills entered the Univesity of Kansas in the late 1950s and proceeded to improve upon the times he had posted at the Haskell Institute. He was a 1958 and 1959 All-American in cross country while at Kansas. In 1960, Mills won the individual title in the Big Eight Conference's cross country tournament. The following year, Mills was the conference champion in the two-mile race with a time just over nine minutes. The Kansas team, filled with gifted track and field athletes, won the 1959 and 1960 NCAA outdoor national championships.
Mills went on to become a marine lieutenant and briefly abandoned running for a time. He concentrated on military life, but the lure of running pulled him back into the fray. While serving in the Marine Corps, he returned to racing, posting times that were good enough to qualify him for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
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