That’s the way Badger McMillan would end the numerous cards he’d send to his daughter, Chantae, who now keeps a collection of those missives in a fireproof lock box in her Kettering home.
“Cards were my dad’s thing, he loved them,” she said softly. “I took out some of the last ones and was looking at how he’d signed them and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s what I need.’”
And with that she rolled her left arm to reveal – on the inside, just below the crook – the exact script of her dad that she had turned into a tattoo of her own.
‘’Love Dad.”
This is the dad that little Chantae would join on the living room floor of their home as he did push-ups and sit-ups alongside her mom – both of her parents were Army careerists – as they went through their PT exercises.
And this is the dad who was her fishing partner on a stocked lake near her hometown of Rolla, Missouri and the dad with whom she’d shoot off fireworks every Fourth of July.
This is also the dad – as she did with her mom, Peggy, too – she’d look for in the crowd every time she first stepped onto a sporting field to compete, be it back at Rolla High School or the University of Nebraska, where she was an All-American, at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon or even the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she represented America in the heptathlon.
“He was my biggest supporter,” she said. “I was the best thing ever to him. He was just so proud of me.”
So while it’s no wonder she has Dad inked so lovingly on her arm, it’s sad that he was not there at her side last Sunday – Father’s Day – when she and her mom got together at her home.
Nor will he be there in two weeks when she returns to Eugene to compete in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, the proving ground that determines the U.S. team headed to 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Badger McMillan died suddenly last Aug. 5 from complications follow an appendectomy. He was 64.
Just two days earlier Chantae had been the star attraction at the Brian Hafer Foundation charity golf outing and auction at the Dayton Country Club.
That day two autographed copies of the 2015 ESPN Body Issue that featured her on the cover — discreetly photographed, but totally nude as she floated over an imaginary high jump bar — were auctioned off.
At that outing, she grinned when asked her dad’s reaction to the cover:
“I said, ‘So Dad, what do you think?’
“He was like, ‘Aaaahhh… well….there’s your abs.’
“And I said, ‘Yeah, and everything else!’”
She was a big hit at the Hafer gathering and the next day she headed to Germany to compete. But no sooner had she gotten there than she got the call from her mom.
She had to come home. Her dad had died.
“Chantae is our only child,” Peggy said. “And she always was a Daddy’s Girl.”
Chantae agreed: “It’s just that he always believed in me.”
And rightly so.
A ticket to London
At Rolla High School she was the two-time Missouri state long jump champ.
Recruited by numerous schools – including Oho State and LSU – she chose Nebraska. Initially a long jumper, she was convinced to tackle the heptathlon, a grueling pursuit that includes seven events – 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter dash, long jump, javelin, 800 meter run – over two days of competition.
She excelled, was a four-time Big 12 Conference champion and won All America honors. But in August of 2011 – a year before the London Games – she suffered a torn patella tendon in her left knee.
After undergoing surgery and rehabbing in Pittsburgh, she surprised everyone and moved to the Dayton area, where 2008 Olympic heptathlon silver medalist Hyleas Fountain was living and working with Lynn Smith, the former Yellow Springs High star and Central State coach, who had a reputation as a trainer of elite athletes.
Although Fountain left before she got here, Chantae still came to Ohio.
Because she had been hurt – and had never competed on the international level – she was pretty much overlooked heading into the 2012 Trials.
Instead she managed a personal record (PR) in five of the seven events – won both the shot put and javelin – and amassed 6,188 points, third best in the competition. That got her the ticket to London alongside Fountain and Sharon Day, the rest of the U.S. entry in the heptathlon.
To commemorate her feat, Chantae would add to her collection of bodily tattoos and have the Olympic rings inked to her right biceps.
Life, though, didn’t quite imitate art at the Games. She struggled in London – got the flu prior to the 800 – and finished 29th.
“You want to win at the Olympics and be the best ever – or at least you want to medal — but that wasn’t the case for me,” she said. “So I had to take it as an experience over being one of the top three.”
She still felt the glory of marching into into the arena with her teammates at the opening ceremony and wearing the USA uniform as she represented her country.
After the Games, she moved to Florida to train for a couple of years because she said she mistakenly believed she had to be around more top-tier athletes. She eventually returned and has forged a life here now
She trains with Smith and has a boyfriend, former University of Dayton football player Devon Langhorst. She helped out as a volunteer coach with the UD track team this past year and has become something of a gardener.
She trains mostly at the Fairmont High track – she moved to Fairborn High recently because of the renovations being made at Fairmont – and she’s a popular regular at the Kettering Rec Center.
A surgery a year ago for an ovary problem, combined with recent injuries, have set her back some and several U.S. athletes have passed her in the recent heptathlon rankings.
Although she’s dropped off the radar in some circles that’s not the case back in Rolla, where she remains a celebrity. With only a GNC sponsorship, she’s not flush with endorsement money like some Olympic-caliber athletes.
That’s where the people of Rolla stepped in last year. She held a camp there for athletes and then had a meet and greet and a silent auction with items sent by several athletes including friends in the NFL.
She made enough to support her training for this year. As for those who write her off now because her recent resume is lean, she shakes her head:
“None of that matters,” she said. “All that counts is what I do on July 9th and 10th when we compete at the Trials.”
‘Get through it together’
Early last Saturday evening Chantae came off the track at Fairborn pale and totally spent. She had been working in the heat for nearly four hours and had gotten nauseous during her high jump training.
“I was over rotating,” she said a bit wearily before managing a faint laugh. “Sometimes I get motion sickness when I’m high jumping. I guess I need Dramamine. I’m one who tends to get sick on roller coasters, too, and I need it there.”
Peggy, a registered nurse back at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, had flown in the day before to be with her daughter over the weekend. She was at the track watching the taxing session and once again had gained a deeper appreciation at what her daughter does.
“One day a while back I spent the whole day working outside in the lawn,” Peggy said. “When I came in, I was just exhausted. And that’s when it hit me: ‘Oh my God, that must be what she feels like every day. She’s just physically spent.’”
The pair would head back to Kettering on Saturday for a low-key cookout that would include several different fruits and vegetables, Chantae said.
“I read where an athlete is supposed to eat 16 servings of fruit and vegetables a day,” she shrugged. “The other day I managed to get 13!”
Peggy had made it a point to be here for Father’s Day.
“All the special days – her dad’s birthday, her birthday, Father’s Day – I try to spend time with her so that way we both can get through it together,” she said. “She told me she’s had a rough day on Thursday and I understood. I told her sometimes it’s just the anticipation of a big day ahead that can be the most upsetting.”
And so Peggy will be at the Trials, too. “I think I’ve been to every heptathlon she’s ever done,” she said. “Until her dad passed, he was always there, too.”
In some ways, Chantae said, her dad will be in Eugene, too – be it his spiritual presence or in that special tattoo on her arm.
“I look at that and it reminds me how much he believed in me,” she said. “And it also makes me feel like I still don’t want to let him down.”
She never did.
Badger McMillan made that clear in all those cards that ended:
“Love Dad.”
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