Submitted by Ed Schlichter
USC Upstate assistant cross country / track and field
Hanging on a wall in my office is a poster of Billy Mills, the 1964 American 10,000-meter Olympic gold medalist. By gazing at his winning smile and arms in the air, you can almost feel his excitement that occurred 44 years ago to make American track and field history. There is also quote at the bottom, "Every passion has its destiny" and until recently I'm not sure I fully understood what this meant.
Having this poster and idolizing Billy Mills since I first started following the sport as an athlete and now as a coach, I never would have imagined having the opportunity to meet this Olympic gold medalist. Thanks to Coach Stephens here at USC Upstate we were lucky enough to strike gold ourselves. Through hard work and research Coach Stephens was able to arrange for Billy Mills to arrive on the USC Upstate campus last Friday (Sept. 5), the night before the Eye Opener Cross Country Invitational (which has been hosted by Upstate the past three years). Several 100 high school and college athletes and coaches had the opportunity of a lifetime as they attended the inaugural pre-race pasta dinner and heard him speak about his Olympic experience and life as a Native American athlete in the sport.
Getting a phone call at 3:30 p.m. from Coach Stephens that Friday didn't seem out of the ordinary, but that was until he told me that I was going to be picking up Billy Mills from the hotel and bringing him to the dinner. My heart stopped for a second so my brain could comprehend the conversation. That I was actually going to be able to have a one on one conversation with arguably one of, if not the greatest distance runner in American history.
Mr. Mills, I learned, is a very humble and easy going person. He kept the conversation flowing, took me into his life, and let me feel as though we had been friends for ages. We arrived to campus around 6:20 p.m. and after a few photo opts. and an interview, we headed upstairs to the dinner where everyone was waiting in anticipation.
When we walked in, he hit rock star status, and you could feel the eyes in the room staring in awe. After the meal, the crowd was shown a clip of his amazing final push to claim the Olympic 10,000 crown in 1964 which preceded his inspiring speech that touched on his past, tough up bringing, battles with society, and of course his victories.
Overall, having Billy Mills come to Spartanburg was truly an incredible experience, one that I will treasure for years to come. Billy made it a point to be sure that everyone that left that evening should have a passion and that passion combined with beliefs and hard work will bring about a destiny.