CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, November 3. 1983
Page 1
Running Brave continued from p. 1
Milts beat 37 of the world's top endurance racers, including the Australian favorite, Ron Williams, who in a desperate attempt to win, bumped milts out of his lane 400 yards from the finish line.
Despite the bump, Mills won the 10,000 meter Olympic race, the first U.S. runner to do so.
EASTON SAID that even before the film project was started in 1978, he and his wife, adamarie, had kept in close touch with the 442-foot tower which is an insurance executive in Sacramento, Calif.
Easton was a technical consultant for "Running Brave," and he spent three weeks on location last year in Canada, where the movie was shot. His wife worked as a wardrobe adviser for the film.
"Ada and I had a fantastic time," he said. "We've seen the finished movie several times now and feel satisfied that the film carried out the real story of a young, unknown man who was up against former Olympic champs in the 1964 Games, and wasn't even a possibility."
Easton was KU's head track and field coach for 18 years until his retirement in 1965. He said that he got a kick out of Pat Hinkle's portrayal of him, the actor who was "a little plump compared to me."
"HINGLE SHOWED Coach Easton was a very tough guy with certain principles," he said. "He does a good job, but he's a little more stern than I was."
A year before production on the movie began, the movie's producer asked Easton to read through the script and make suggestions regarding its authenticity.
Although the movie originally was supposed to be filmed in Lawrence, Easton said, it was shot in Canada because the money exchange rate there was much better than in the United States.
The oil-wealthy Ermineskin Band of Cree Indians from Canada financed the $9 million project and saved about $1 million by producing the movie in Canada, he said.
All of the KU scenes were filmed at the University of Edmonton, which has a campus similar to KU's, he said.
Mills, whose father was a half-Oglaiah Sioux Indian, was born on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Both his father and his mother were Mills, the sons of Jake Mills and his 14 brothers and sisters orphaned.
ALTHOUGH MILLS he always wanted to be a boxer, like his father, he decided against it because he was too small. He started running on the reservation simply because he enjoyed it.
After he won the first race he entered at Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Junior College, Mills trained for four years under Haskell's coach, Tony Coffin. Easton inherited Mills after the runner received an athletic scholarship from KU.
Mills remained under Easton's tutelage until he graduated in 1962 with a degree in physical education and decided to join the Marine Corps.
"When I first coached Billy as a freshman he was quiet," Easton said. "He was out of his own Indian world and in the world of the white man for the first time."
WHILE AT KU, Mills led the track team to NCAA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1959 and 1960 and was the Big Eight cross-country champion in 1960 and Big Eight 2-mile indoor and outdoor champ in 1961. The team also won the real competitive potential until after he left KU.
"Billy did well with us, but he was young and did not mature easily," he said. "His body just was."
Mills suffered from a poor diet and allergies, problems that were undetected until he enlisted in the Army.
Easton attributes Mills' post-college success to his improved diet and better medical care.
During the two years he was stationed as a Marine lieutenant in California. Mills trained for
AFTER EASTON attended the Olympic trials to watch Mills, he said he thought Mills "had come of age and had found himself."
distance running in preparation for the Olympic trials in Los Angeles
"He was farther along than I'd ever seen him. He was the qualified for the games, he was in the best position."
Easton said that he did not see Mills again until the opening heat of the Tokyo Games, when his former protege set a new Olympic record by winning Clarek and Mohammad Gamudi of Tunisia.
"I said as though I was in a traince until I felt the finish line tape snap across my chest," he said.
At a small press briefing three weeks ago in Kansas City, Mo., Mills described how he felt in the race after pulling away from his two challengers coming off the curve.
THE REALITY of that exhilarating moment hit Mills when he heard a Japanese official ask him above the roar of the crowd, "Who are you, who are you?"
"That is so clear in my mind today," he said. Easton said, "No one knew anything about him. His name was never in print. The Russian press called him our 'secret weapon.' "
Mills achieved fame overnight when he withstood the elbow-bump by Clarke and the lane-boxing in tactics of the other runners, who record smashing time of 28 minutes, 24.4 seconds.
WINNING THE gold medal marked a pivotal point in his life, Mills said, not only as an athletic accomplishment but as a personal milestone as well.
The dramatic finish is captured in the film with a series of slow-motion shots that show Benson throwing up his arms in triumph as the tape breaks across his chest.
"For the first time in my life I could find out who I was and understand who I am as a human being."
Actor Robby Benson, former KU track star Billy Mills and Bill Easton, KU's head track and field coach from 1947 to 1965, talked about the film 'Running Brave' at a recent press briefing in Kansas City, Mo. The film traces Mills' life from a South Dakota reservation to his unexpected 1964 Olympic victory.
The conflict between Easton's standard racing strategy of always staying in the lead and his desire to push from behind made Mills "get off confused" that he would often stop trying to win.
Gerald Tuckwain, a former classmate of Mills' at Haskell and Haskell's present director of physical education, said that he understood Mills' problems adjusting to the white man's society from an Indian world, "although it was easier at Haskell than at KU."
"You have all kinds of fears and insecurities you leave the rescue team," he said. "KU left the rescue team."
MILLS SAID that the movie was an accurate
representation of the discrimination he experienced while a student at KU.
The authenticity is there," he said. "The film shows my confusion at being thrust into a new environment."
But there was no confusion in his mind when he personally selected Benson to play the lead role.
Not only was Mills aware of the striking physical resemblance between them, but he said he was also impressed by the 27-year-old actor's skill and his previous films and his penchant for athletics.
"Robby is an incredibly talented actor and athlete," he said, "In fact, he beat me by two minutes recently in a 10K run."
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