NIKE MOURNS PASSING, CELEBRATES LIFE OF
CO-FOUNDER WILLIAM J. BOWERMAN Legendary Univ. of Oregon track coach and innovative footwear designer passes away at age 88.
No funeral service to be held; well-wishers can post messages at
www.billbowerman.com
.
BEAVERTON, Ore. – Bill Bowerman – the legendary University of Oregon track coach who brought jogging to the U.S. and co-founded Nike Inc. – died in his sleep on Christmas Eve night at his home in Fossil, Ore. He was 88 years old.
The fiery Bowerman was at the heart and soul of Nike. It was he, along with a track athlete he coached at Oregon by the name of Phil Knight, who revolutionized the world of athletic shoes.
"In 1998, a magazine asked me, who had been around so many heroes, to name my personal hero," Phil Knight reflected upon learning of Mr. Bowerman's death. "Without hesitation, I named Bill Bowerman. He was for so many of us a hero, leader and – most of all – teacher. My sadness at his passing is beyond words."
Mr. Bowerman's connection with Nike will remain inexorably linked thanks to the creation of the Bowerman Series, which represents the most technologically advanced running shoes Nike has ever designed. Nike also has committed to an ongoing program to renovate high school track facilities under Mr. Bowerman's name, using recycled Nike shoes in the track's rubber compound.
Mr. Bowerman also is featured prominently in Nike's Eugene retail store, located in the Fifth Street Market complex, and has a building named for him on Nike's recently expanded European Headquarters in Hilversum, The Netherlands.
Mr. Bowerman's storied career spanned the length and breadth of not only Oregon athletics, but the world. His footprint remains indelible. As a coach, educator, inventor and sports icon, Mr. Bowerman set a standard and work ethic unmatched in most sports. He turned the college town of Eugene, Ore., into the running capital of the world, spread the gospel of jogging and fitness, and along the way, revolutionized the running shoe.
Mr. Bowerman's accomplishments as head track coach at the University of Oregon from 1948 to 1972 comprise a dizzying list:
He coached 24 NCAA individual champions, 38 Pacific Coast Conference individual champions, 132 Northern Division individual champions, four NCAA Team Champions in 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1970, 33 Olympic team competitors, 64 All-Americans, and coached the 1972 Olympic track and field team.
In 16 of 24 years, his Oregon track team finished in the top 10 in NCAA championships.
He won 13 consecutive Northern Division team championships.
His dual-meet record at the U of O was 114-20, a winning percentage of .843.
He served at the helm of the NCAA track and field coaches association and NCAA track and field rules committee, and was a professor emeritus at the U of O.
Mr. Bowerman not only coached the athletes, but also was a tireless worker and innovator for the sport of track and field. He was instrumental in developing rubberized asphalt runways, developed statewide programs for high school athletes, and instituted jogging programs throughout Oregon that led to the nationwide jogging craze.
He and partner Phil Knight founded BRS (Blue Ribbon Sports) in 1965 to distribute the Japanese-made Tiger shoes (a division of Onitsuka) in the U.S. In 1968, the Cortez, made to Mr. Bowerman's specifications, became Tiger's best-selling shoe.
The Waffle Revolution
It was in the quest for better performance that Mr. Bowerman will be forever known. He wanted a lighter running shoe for his athletes, one not bound by heavy leather and stiff soles. By his calculation, for every ounce that was removed from the shoe's weight, 200 cumulative pounds would be lifted from the runner over the course of a one-mile race.
By now the story is lore: With some latex, leather, glue and his wife's waffle iron, Mr. Bowerman developed the first lightweight outsole that would revolutionize the running shoe. His durable, stable and light Waffle sole set a new standard for shoe performance.
Phil Knight, who trained under Mr. Bowerman at the U of O in the late '50s and who was later an entrepreneurial business student at Stanford, teamed up with Mr. Bowerman in the early '60s. Each eventually chipped in $500 and manufactured 330 pairs of the new Waffle-designed shoe that they sold for $3.30 a pair. Mr. Bowerman's team wore the shoes with amazing results. It was the birth of Nike.
"Some of the best athletes in the world were winning major races wearing shoes made in Bowerman's garage," Knight said. In fact, Knight was able, by 1972, to make the claim that four of the top seven finishers in the 1972 Olympic Marathon were wearing Nike shoes.
Mr. Bowerman and Phil Knight began showing up anywhere there was running going on, with Knight selling shoes from the trunk of his car. "[T]he elevation of athletic shoe manufacture to both a science and a fashion was due largely due to Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman of Oregon," observed MIT's Inventor of the Week archives. "Their company thrived through a classic combination of entrepreneurship and innovation. Bowerman's most memorable technical breakthrough was the optimal traction of the waffle soles he invented by shaping rubber in the waffle iron in his kitchen (1972). Other essential innovations were the wedged heel, the cushioned mid-sole, and nylon uppers."
The rest is sports history.
A Dedication to Giving
Though his innovation and drive made him wealthy, Mr. Bowerman gave as much or more back to the community. His matching-grant programs have contributed to Oregon's education, arts, medical research and the environment. He's given money to Gilchrist, Mapleton and Medford to pay for all-weather tracks and, when budget cuts threatened the Oregon baseball program, Mr. Bowerman dug into his own wallet to support the formation of a club baseball program.
In 1990, he agreed to donate $2.1 million for the construction of a two-story building at the legendary Hayward Field on the UO campus that now bears his name. He also created the Bill Bowerman Foundation, which supports grass roots track-and-field programs throughout the country.
Mr. Bowerman has given frequently to organizations like the Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene Arts Foundation, Eugene Symphony, Eugene Opera, and the UO Museum of Natural History, always to little fanfare.
Mr. Bowerman is survived by his wife, Barbara, and sons Jon H. Bowerman, Jay W. Bowerman and Tom Bowerman, and six grandchildren. Per Mr. Bowerman's wishes, no funeral service will be held. In lieu of flowers or cards, the family has asked that those wishing to remember Mr. Bowerman may make a donation to University of Oregon Foundation in Eugene, the Oregon Community Foundation in Portland or to the charity of their choice.
University of Oregon Foundation
1217 University of Oregon
Agate Hall
Eugene, OR 97403-1217
(541) 346-2118
Oregon Community Foundation
621 SW Morrison, Suite 725
Portland, OR 97205
(503) 227-6846
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Mr. Bowerman not only coached the athletes, but also was a tireless worker and innovator for the sport of track and field. He was instrumental in developing rubberized asphalt runways, developed statewide programs for high school athletes, and instituted jogging programs throughout Oregon that led to the nationwide jogging craze. 