A Simple Message From A Champion About A Mom's Love

By Ray Glier

“Just remember, son, you will always be loved in this house, win or lose.”___Omega Collins to her son, Bill, decades ago in Mt. Vernon, N.Y.

Bill Collins, 74, made his mother’s words his foundation for life. He cherished them and leaned on them, especially in 2011 when he was struck by Guillain-Barre Syndrome in the prime of his Masters sprint career. Collins was the best in the world and then, suddenly, he wasn’t.

Would he still be loved? 

When Bill was stricken by GBS 14 years ago, he went into the hospital 165 pounds and came out 101 pounds. He lost much muscle below his waist. Doctors, he said, gave him a 50-50 chance of survival because of the muscle wasting and the risks associated with further decline.

“You could touch my bones,” Collins said.

In a wheelchair for two months, Collins dragged himself into a pool and to therapy with the help of his wife, Stephanie. His wife’s care was irreplaceable, he said. So were his mother’s words of unconditional love, which helped burn into him an “ageless spirit.” He knew his return to racing could fall short, but he would still be loved.

“It was a beautiful thing,” Bill said of his mother’s blessing.

Amazingly, and against doctor’s orders, Collins competed in 2012. More amazing, he worked himself back to No. 1 in the U.S. in the 100 and 200 outdoors and the 60, 200, and 400 indoors.

It came at a cost. Bill was warned by doctors his eagerness to return to the track before he was fully healed could jeopardize his body later in life. It has. His muscle coordination has become helter skelter and Collins says when he races he is 70%. There are races, he said, when a hip feels like a ball and chain he has to drag down, or around, the track.

Bill, who lives in Houston, will not be at the USA Track & Field Masters Outdoor Championships next weekend in Huntsville, Ala. 

“I shouldn’t have run in 2012, but because of the love of sports and not fully understanding GBS, I didn’t realize the long-term impact on my body, Collins said. “I wish I had taken a longer recovery before attempting a return. The medical team felt five years off. We as athletes are just plain hardheaded.

“This is a very important message to athletes around the world. Truly listen to your body and medical staff because we only see and feel in the moment. The long term effects are unpredictable and unseen at the current moment.”

Collins, honored four times as USATF Masters Athlete of the Year and once as World Masters Male Athlete of the Year, does not pile regrets into our 40-minute talk. Instead he marvels over the sprinters he coaches, including fellow Texan, the 90-year old Rob Whilden. 

But, I had to ask Bill, if he was 100%, how fast could he go right now?

“11.5,” he said.

In the 100 meters?

“Yes.”

The world record for 100 meters is 11.70 seconds ...for Men 60-64.

"All things considered," he said, "I feel like I'm 60, not 74."

For Men 70-74, which is Collins’ age group, it is 12.59 seconds held by the U.S. Masters icon Damien Leake, who will run in Huntsville. 11.5 seems outlandish, but Collins did outlandish things in Masters track where he won 27 world championship records and was part of relay teams that still hold world records.

Collins has always had this unblushing, brassy outlook of his skills. It comes from his rigorous training year after year. He refused to be outworked and when he sold his sporting goods company he could be devoted to gaining speed, and then more speed. Bill and his friend, Rick Riddle, wrote about their training culture in the book The Ageless Athletic Spirit. 

Collins was confident, but he was not disrespectful, as some assumed. When he got ready to make the last step across the finish line, many times as a winner, Bill raised one or both arms. It was not a proclamation he was the best that day. Bill said it was praise upwards toward his mother, Omega, who passed at just 63.

“It cost me two races,” he said. “One time indoors and one time outdoors and got beat. I made sure I congratulated the winner.”

At one time, Collins owned various world records in the sprints in the 50-54 age cohort, as well as 55-59, and 60-64.

But it is satisfying enough these days for the former Texas Christian University star to train and counsel runners. He preaches to them all to focus on “the process” not results.

“You have to know you did everything you could to prepare,” Bill said. “And then you have to know you might have an off day. Just know that you prepared and know that you are one of a select few of the millions and millions of people in the world who can still do this at an older age.”

For some, they will know as they prepare the ultimate prize will be at the Finish Line.

Win or lose. They will be loved.