Running History  ›  Bowerman

He was 100 percent there, in the moment with you, his intensity softened by a quick smile and sawblade wit. This was a guy with a lot to offer, and you were a fool if you didn’t take it.

By the time he got around to doing Nike, Bowerman was already a legend, and not just in track and field. As a kid he was a first-class athlete, football mostly. Fighting in World War II he faced down an eyrie full of German soldiers as a member of the 10th Mountain Division. Back home he soon took the reins at University of Oregon from another legend, Bill Hayward. Like Bowerman he was known for finding ways to win that nobody else thought of (or dared to do). In the early 1960s, Bowerman took his team to run against a team from New Zealand. While there, he noticed townspeople running, just for the joy and convenience and fitness it offered. He brought that experience back to Eugene and started the country’s first running club. Then he wrote a book about how to run for fun and fitness. He called it Jogging, and the running boom was born. 

His record at University of Oregon is without equal: four NCAA team championships, 44 All-Americans, 19 Olympians. He finished his career as coach of the 1972 USA Olympic team in Munich. Somewhere in the middle of all that he met Phil Knight.

nikebiz.com