Bill Bowerman
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| William "Bill" J. Bowerman | |
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| Born | February 19, 1911 Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
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| Died | December 24, 1999 |
| Occupation | Track and field coach, co-founder of Nike, Inc. |
| Spouse | Barbara Bowerman |
| Children | Three |
| Website Nike Corporation |
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William J. "Bill" Bowerman (February 19, 1911 – December 24, 1999) was an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc. He was a very successful track and field coach, training 31 Olympic athletes, 51 All-Americans, 12 American record-holders, 24 NCAA champions, and 16 sub-4 minute milers. During his 24 years as coach at the University of Oregon, the track and field team had a winning season every season but one, attained 4 NCAA titles, and finished in the top 10 in the nation 16 times.
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[edit] Early life
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Bill Bowerman was born February 19, 1911 in Portland, Oregon. His father was former Governor of Oregon Jay Bowerman;[1] his mother had grown up in Fossil. The family returned to Fossil after the parents divorced in 1913. Bill had an older brother and sister, Dan and Mary Elizabeth “Beth.” Bill also had a twin brother, Thomas, who died in an elevator accident when they were two years old.
Bill attended Fossil Grade School, and Medford and Seattle schools before returning to Medford for high school. Bill played in the high school band and for the state champion football team his junior and senior years. Bill first met Barbara Young, the woman he would marry, in high school in Medford. Bill came to the University of Oregon in 1929 to play football and study journalism, where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After one year studying journalism, Bill switched to a business major, which he did not like, but he decided to finish the degree anyway. He competed in track while finishing up pre-med courses. After graduation, Bill was set to teach school for two years, and then attend medical school. He taught biology and coached football at Franklin High School in Portland in 1934. In 1935 he moved back to Medford to teach and coach football. In 1936 he added the coaching responsibilities for basketball as well as football. He started a track team at Medford High School in 1937, and gave up his basketball coaching duties to become the track coach.
Bill and Barbara were married on June 22, 1936. Their first son, Jon, was born June 22, 1938. William J. Bowerman Jr. (“Jay”) was born November 17, 1942.
[edit] Military career
Bowerman enlisted in the United States Army in the days following the Pearl Harbor attack. He was assigned to Fort Lawton in Washington and served a year there before being assigned to the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment at Camp Hale in Leadville, Colorado. Along with the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment, his regiment would become the 10th Mountain Division.[2]
His duty entailed organizing the troops' supplies and maintaining the mules used to carry the supplies in the mountains. On December 23, 1944, the division arrived in Naples, Italy and soon moved north to the mountains of northern Italy.[3] During his tour of duty, Bowerman was promoted to commander of the 86th Regiment's First Battalion at the rank of Major.[4] Bowerman negotiated a stand-down of German forces near the Brenner Pass in the days before the surrender of the German army in all of Italy.[5] For his service, Bowerman received four Bronze Stars, a Good Conduct Medal, and a Silver Star. He was honorably discharged in October 1945.[6]
[edit] Coaching career
After the war, he returned to his position at Medford High School. Bill and Barbara’s third son, Thomas was born May 20, 1946. The family then moved to Eugene, Oregon for Bill to become the Freshman Football coach. His first day of work with the University of Oregon was July 1, 1948.
[edit] University of Oregon
Bill made his biggest mark as a track coach. His ‘Track Men of Oregon’ won 24 NCAA individual titles (with wins in 15 of the 19 events contested) and four NCAA team crowns (1962-1964-1965-1970), and posted 16 top-10 NCAA finishes in 24 years as head coach. His teams also boasted 33 Olympians, 38 conference champions and 64 All-Americans. At the dual level, the Ducks posted a 114-20 record and went undefeated in 10 seasons. In addition Bill coached the world record setting 4-mile relay team in 1962. This team consisted of Archie San Romani, Dyrol Burleson, Vic Reeve and Keith Forman with a time of 16:08.9. Among athletes that Bill Bowerman coached are: the legendary Steve Prefontaine, Kenny Moore, Bill Dellinger, Mac Wilkins, Jack Hutchins, Dyrol Burleson, Harry Jerome, Siegmar Ohlemann, Les Tipton, Gerry Moro, Wade Bell, Dave Edstrom, Roscoe Divine, Jim Grelle, Bruce Mortenson and Phil Knight.
In 1971 Bill stepped back from day-to-day coaching activities to spearhead the fundraising for renovating the Hayward Field grandstands before the 1972 Olympic Trials. He also ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1970 as a Republican, losing by only 1000 votes in a close race.[1] According to the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper, Bowerman officially retired as the UO head coach on March 23, 1973. Assistant coach Bill Dellinger officially took over the reins.
[edit] United States Olympic Track program
Bill created a training program for adjusting athletes for the high altitude that they would experience at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. This successful program led to his selection as the 1972 Munich Olympic Track and Field head coaching position. Bill coached members of teams from Norway, Canada, Australia, and the United States.
Bill is a member of the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and Oregon’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
[edit] Jogging
During a trip to New Zealand in 1962, Bill was introduced to the concept of jogging as a fitness routine through a jogging club organized by his friend and coaching colleague Arthur Lydiard. Bill brought this concept back to the United States, and began to write articles and books about jogging. Bill also created a jogging program in Eugene that became a national model for fitness programs. "A Jogger’s Manual", a three page guide, was published shortly after Bill returned from New Zealand. In 1966, along with cardiologist W.E. Harris, Bill published a 90-page book entitled Jogging. Short and to the point, the book sold over a million copies and was credited with igniting the jogging phenomenon in the USA. Due to the popularity of Jogging, Harris and Bill published a 127 page book in 1967. To this day jogging remains a popular form of exercise for men and women of all ages.
[edit] Nike
In 1964, Bowerman entered into a handshake agreement with Phil Knight, who had been a miler under him in the 1950s, to start an athletic footwear distribution company called Blue Ribbon Sports, later known as Nike, Inc.. Knight managed the business end of the partnership, while Bowerman experimented with improvements in athletic footwear design.
Bowerman's design ideas led to the creation of a running shoe in 1966 that would ultimately be named 'Cortez' in 1968, which quickly became a top-seller and remains one of Nike's most iconic footwear designs. Bowerman designed several Nike shoes, but is best known for ruining his wife's waffle iron in 1970 or 1971, experimenting with the idea of using waffle-ironed rubber to create a new sole for footwear that would grip but be lightweight.
Bowerman's design inspiration led to the introduction of the so-called "Moon Shoe" in 1972, so named because the waffle tread was said to resemble the footprints left by astronauts on the moon. Further refinement resulted in the "Waffle Trainer" in 1974, which helped fuel the explosive growth of Blue Ribbon Sports/Nike.
Bowerman's obsession with shaving weight off his athletes' running shoes was legendary. He believed that custom-made shoes would weigh less on the feet of his runners and cut down on blisters, as well as reduce the overall drag on their energy for every ounce he could remove from the shoe.
Today, the headquarters for Nike is located on Bowerman Drive in homage to the company's co-founder.
In 1999, Bill Bowerman died at the age of 88 on Christmas Eve.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Moore, Kenny (2006). Bowerman and the Men of Oregon. Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale. ISBN 978-1594861901.
- Bowerman, William J (1991). High-performance training for track and field. Champaign, Ill.: Leisure Press. ISBN 0880113901.
- Freeman, William H. (1972). A biographical study of William Jay Bowerman.
- Greenberg, Keith (1994). Bill Bowerman & Phil Knight: Building the Nike Empire. Blackbirch Press. ISBN 978-1567110852.
