Charles Trimble. Photo by Native Sun News

It seems sometimes that there aren’t heroes like the ones we had when I was growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1940s and ‘50s – certainly not in the sports world.

But things were different then, and from what we have learned over the years since then, many of those heroes were dumb, mean, racist bums but they could hit the ball a mile, throw hard, and run like hell. From the baseball cards we’d get in gum packages, they looked clean and pressed and shiny. Most certainly, because of the lack of TV, we never saw their warts and flaws and raunchy habits on the playing field. There were no TV cameras to zero in on any player scratching his crotch, picking his nose, or issuing a steady brown stream of tobacco spit. So in our young minds our heroes were tough, but gentile and heroic.

These days there are many athletes who pitch at near-warp speeds and hit more home runs on the diamond, pass and run for more yards and TDs on the gridiron, score more points on basketball courts, and perform wonders in Olympic competition. And, except for the Olympians, they are paid a king’s ransom for doing what they do.

But there are as many (but still far too few) who are fined, suspended or expelled from sports for beating up on spouses and girlfriends or for having been caught using performance enhancing drugs and steroids, or for stupid racist comments, and disgusting behavior that we wouldn’t want our children to know, let alone emulate.

Today, however, there are many great athletes deserving of their pedestals as stars and role models for the youth; chief among them in recent times have been Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, and Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles.

In his final round of games leading up to his recent retirement, shortstop Derek Jeter was given a standing ovation in each of the stadiums, and usually a gift as well from the opposing team. His number 2 would never again grace a Yankee pinstripe uniform for it was retired. He was respected, admired and loved in New York and the entire country. He wasn’t falsely modest, but he declined to talk about himself as a great player. He was more like Lou Gehrig than like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle. He did not suffer problems of ego or reckless living. He was a consummate athlete who unassumingly shattered long-held records of the greatest players in baseball history.

Last year we bid farewell to another great man: Mariano Rivera, the beloved relief pitcher for the Yankees – the ultimate “closer” who was also respected throughout both leagues. In his final game in the stadiums of opposing teams the public address systems would blare out the foreboding strains of his theme “Enter Sandman,” when he came out of the bull pen to the mound to save the game for a teammate.

Rivera was born in Panamanian fishing village to a hard-working family, and worked hard to perfect his talents in baseball, then went on to play nineteen years and set numerous records for the New York Yankees. He was known for his great control and his composure on the mound. But he lost that stoic composure in his last appearance in Yankee Stadium and broke into tears when his teammates Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte came out of the dugout to the mound with his warmup jacket – his time had come to bid final farewell to his beloved Yankee Stadium, his team family, and his host of fans across the Americas. In 2013, the Yankees retired his uniform number 42, which he alone was allowed to wear full-time despite the fact that the number was permanently retired by the league in honor of his own hero, Jackie Robinson.

A third player who had graced the lives of our generation wore the uniform of the Baltimore Orioles, Calvin “Cal” Ripken, Jr. He was a home-grown product of Maryland, and followed in the footsteps of his father, another great player and coach for the Orioles. He was given the nickname “Iron Man” after he broke the record of the original Iron Man, Lou Gehrig, for the most consecutive games played – a record that had stood for 56 years and many thought would never be broken. Ripken was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

All three of these heroes held the same virtues that characterize truly great stars: hard-earned ability, self-confidence, subordinated egos, courage, and moral integrity. All were team players and shunned grand-standing and flattery. They were a breath of fresh air in an era of steroid monsters and monkey morals that have threatened the game of baseball as it clings by its fingernails onto the historical title as America’s Pastime.

Over the 20th Century, Indian Country has been well represented in sports – amateur, Olympic and professional. Generally accepted as the all-time greatest for his mastery of all major sports has been Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox. When he was presented to the King of Sweden and the king proclaimed him the greatest athlete in the world, Thorpe was reported to have replied simply, respectfully but as an equal, “Thanks, King.”

Of the contemporary array of outstanding and famous Native American athletes, two stand out for their achievements, character and good works: Notah Begay III in the Professional Golfers Association and Billy Mills for his historic victory in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – the first and only American to win a gold medal in the 10,000 meter race.

Begay is a full-blooded Native American; one-half Navajo, one-quarter San Felipe and one-quarter Isleta. Graduating from the Albuquerque Academy in 1990, he went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Stanford University. In 2009, he was named one of Golf Magazine’s Innovators of the Year and, more impressively was named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the world by the Institute for International Sport. He owns a golf course development company and works with Native American communities to develop world-class golf properties.

He also established the non-profit Notah Begay III Foundation, the purpose of which is to provide health and wellness education to Native American youth through soccer and golf programs and to stand as a catalyst for change in the Native American community.

It was Billy Mills’ vision and inspiration that the Running Strong for Indian Youth organization was founded over 20 years ago, with Billy as its National Spokesperson. Today, the organization works in American Indian communities nationwide to give Native children a chance to follow their dreams.

Billy was born in the village of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He took up running while in high school at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, then went on to attend the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship. He was named a NCAA All-America cross-country runner three times and in 1960 he won the individual title in the Big Eight cross-country championship. The University of Kansas track team won the 1959 and 1960 outdoor national championships while Mills was on the team. After graduating with a degree in Physical Education, Mills entered the United States Marine Corps. He was a First Lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve when he competed in the 1964 Olympics.

Both Begay and Mills often speak to groups of young Native men and women, providing great inspiration and encouragement. Their exemplary careers bring to mind the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, the most appropriate excerpts from which are these:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
     To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
     Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

And finally…

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
     With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
     And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Ho…Hecetu welo.

Charles "Chuck" Trimble is a member of the Oglala Lakota Oyate, born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was principal founder of the American Indian Press Association in 1970, and served as Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1972-1978. He can be reached at cchuktrim@aol.com or charlestrimble.com