Vol. 3 No. 60 Tribute to Billy Mills

This picture shows Billy probably winning the Big 8 cross country meet against Oklahoma State Aggie, Miles Eiseman.  (I'll accept corrections to this as the picture was not captioned.

Hi George, Paul Ebert here, I ran in this big eight and have all the results at Stillwater, Okla
        team finals
          Oklahoma St 40, Kansas  50,Oklahoma 84, Missouri 85, Nebraska 139, Iowa st  161, and Colorado 180
        individuals:
             In 1960 at Stillwater
          1. Bill Mills      Kansas    15:03                    In 1958 Hodgson OU 14:00
          2. John Haraughty  OSU      15:04                In 1959 Eisenman OSU 13:55
          3. Jack Mc Phail    OSU      15:05                 2.Mills Kansas 14:11
          4. Harold Smith    OSU      15:06                  3.Hodgson OU  14:14
          5. Bill Dotson      Kansas    15:07   
          6. Robert Hanneken  Missouri  15:17 
          7. Raymond Schmitz  Missouri  15:23  
          8. Leslie Stevens  Nebraska  15:28   
          9. PAUL EBERT      OKLA.    15:31  
          10. Lee Smith        Okla.    15:33   
          11. Gail Hodgson    Okla.    15:36
          12, Bill Hayward    Kansas    15:38
          13. Pat Mc Neil      K State  15:39
          14. Kirk Hagean      Kansas    15:43
          15. Ray Graham      OSU      15:46
          16. Bill Stone    OSU    15:49    
          17. Robert Linrud  Kansas  15:56
          18. Don Gabbert Missouri  15:58       
          19. Bill Kinney  Nebraska  15:58
          20. Karl Brown Iowa St    16:02
          25. Tim Leonard OU        16:10
          27. bud Stewart OU        16:13
          30. Jerome McFadden Missouri 16:16
          33. Ted Reisinger  Kansas  16:23
          35. Dick Neff      OU      16:28
          36. Neville Soll  OU      16:35

     

http://www.kuathletics.com/news/2013/9/26/TRACK_0926133117.aspx

This site from the University of Kansas , honoring Billy Mills, was brought to our attention by Mike Solomon, a former Jayhawk , runner.  There is a brief video of the final 300 meters of the 1964 10,000 meters that Billy Mills won in such surprising and spectacular fashion.   There is also a brief biography of Billy. 

This past August , I had the pleasure of chatting briefly with Billy at the induction ceremonies of the Cincinnati area Track and Field Hall of Fame.  He proved to be a superbly gracious individual , willing to share stories and acknowledge the help that others had been in his career and his life before and after the Olympic victory.  I had no idea of all the money he has raised for worthy causes.  When I mentioned to Billy that I had run at the University of Oklahoma shortly after he graduated from Kansas, he instantly remembered the names of some of my teammates including Gail Hodgson and Ernie Kleynhans and that they were from South Africa.  Such a memory that could conjure up names from fifty years in the past.

I do remember reading in one of Nicholas Sparks' books Three Weeks With My Brother about a round the world trip that Sparks took with his brother, that he had once dated Billy's daughter.  Although that relationship didn't work out,  Billy remained close to Sparks and ended up paying for Sparks' honeymoon when he married another woman.   Sparks had had a tough life growing up in a single parent family, was a good half miler and ran for Notre Dame. 

Another example of Billy's persona occurred at that Cincinnati meeting this summer.   A friend Dick Trace had given us of picture of Billy running in a three mile race for Quantico Marines.  In the picture with Billy, who was leading, was Les Hegedus from Central State University (Ohio) and Andy Schram (Miami of Ohio).  Hegedus had gone on to win that race.  Billy was kind enough to autograph the picture to Les , saying, "Les, you beat me bad that day."    Billy later admitted that he had suffered frequently from hypoglaecemia and was still learning to control it.  This was one of the day he had run out of fuel.  He mentioned that he used to eat honey before a race, but when his coach, Bill Easton found him doing it, he told Billy to refrain from that practice for some  reason.   In those days when the coach spoke it was his way or the highway.

GB

Vol. 1 No. 70 November, 1959

NOVEMBER 1959

Al Lawrence

Crawford 'Forddy' Kennedy


The cover has photos of Forddy Kennedy leading the field en route to leading Michigan State to the Big Ten championship and Al Lawrence of Houston crossing the finish line in the NCAA meet. Lawrence also wins the AAU meet three days later.
The NCAA meet is held in East Lansing, a good thing because Michigan State puts on a show for the home folks, scoring 44 points to win easily over Houston with 120. In six previous races Lawrence has tied with teammate John Macy. This time he puts 150 yards between them. Macy edges Kennedy for second. Houston also picks up a sixth in the team scoring as Pat Clohessy finishes 8th. Unfortunately for the Cougars, their next scorers are 52 and 59. The Spartans bunch their runners within 50 seconds in the 3-4-9-12-16 positions. Iowa (134), Notre Dame (141) and Western Michigan (148) take the next three spots. Apparently word of a national cross country meet has not reached the South or West, as, aside from Houston and Air Force, the other scoring teams are from the Midwest or East.
Three days later the AAU meet is held in Louisville. This time the Cougars do better. Buoyed by the addition of Barrie Almond and Jerry Smart, they crush a less than stellar field, scoring 30 points to outdistance the NYAC (64), Idaho University TC (68) and University of Chicago TC (74). The three other scoring teams are the High Point TC, Kentuckiana Cinder Club and Berea College. Once again Macy takes second, this time only five seconds behind Lawrence, but 23 seconds ahead of third place Billy Mills.
`The Big Eight runs only three miles, but it is enough for Miles Eisenman of Okie State to establish his dominance over Billy Mills and Gail Hodgson. Cliff Cushman, the number seven ranked intermediate hurdler in the world, just to fill the time until track season is Kansas’ number two man, finishing 8th as the Jayhawks win their 13th consecutive league title. Michigan State of course wins the Big Ten.
The US Report, a compilation of the top 50 or so times in each event, fills five pages. On the first page is a photo of LSU’s Billy Cannon who has the 11th best 100 time (9.5), the sixth best 220 (20.6 straightaway) and the 33rd best shot put (54-4). He might develop into something. Oddly, though next month’s world issue will include the 400 IH and the HSJ, they are not included in this national list.
The Meet the Coach column features Bill Easton of Kansas who has had a pretty successful run in Lawrence. He ran the quarter at Indiana. His first coaching job was at Hammond, Indiana. He then coached at Drake where his cross country teams won three NCAA titles in the 40’s. Kansas called in 1947 and it has been all sunshine and bright lights ever since. His Jayhawks have won 15 indoor and outdoor Big Eight track championships and the aforementioned 13 consecutive league cross country titles. His 1953 XC team won the NCAA meet as did this year’s track team.
Other tidbits gleaned from various columns include the news that Ira Murchison now weighs 135 pounds. This is significant because he was operated on this summer for complications arising from amoebic dysentery. His weight had dropped to 84 pounds. He is running again and hopes to compete for a spot on next year’s Olympic team……Colorado half miler Mike Peake and North Carolina miler Jim Beatty are now training with the newly formed Santa Clara Valley Youth Village in California…….What are the odds of Bakersfield Junior College having next year’s Olympic 100 meter champion? Pretty good, apparently as there is a notation that Armin Hary has relocated from Germany to the southern region of the Central Valley.
Puma has a quarter page ad. So does the Adidas interloper in Lansing, Michigan. Not to worry, Clifford Severn has them both beat. His ad covers 3/8 of the back page.
Dyslexia rules the day once again. Above the Severn ad is a photo of Gene Venzke edging Glenn Cunningham in a 4:13.4 mile in Princeton, NJ in 1936. It is the third that I can remember the magazine has reversed. The curb is on the right and letters on the shirts are backwards. I wonder whether Cordner yells at Nelson or vice versa.