Billy Mills

Billy Mills

William Mervin "Billy" Mills, also known as Makata Taka Hela (born June 30, 1938), is the second Native American to win an Olympic gold medal. He accomplished this feat in the 10,000 meter run at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the only American ever to win the Olympic gold in this event. His 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest of Olympic upsets. A former United States Marine, Billy Mills is a member of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribe.

Read more about Billy Mills:  Biography, Legacy and Honors, Books

Famous quotes containing the words billy and/or mills:

    “How old is she, Billy boy, Billy boy?
    How old is she, charming Billy?”
    Past six, past seven,
    Past twenty and eleven,
    She’s a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.”
    —Unknown. Billy Boy (l. 21–25)

    You haf slafed your life away in de bosses’ mills and your fadhers before you and your kids after you yet. Vat is a man to do with seventeen-fifty a week? His wife must work nights to make another ten, must vork nights and cook and wash in day an’ vatfor? So that the bosses can get rich an’ the stockholders and bondholders. It is too much... ve stood it before because ve vere not organized. Now we have union... We must all stand together for union.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)