Bill Bowerman was born on February 19,1911 in Portland, Oregon. He was a track coach and shoe-design innovator who helped to change American exercise habits and was a co-founder for the Nike corporation.
Bowerman's father, William Jake Bowerman, Sr., an attorney and politician, left his mother, Elizabeth Hoover, when their son was just two years old. Bowerman and his three siblings were raised in Fossil and Medford, Oregon, by his mother and aunts. Bill attended Medford High School, where he became involved in athletics. As an undergraduate at the University of Oregon during the early 1930's, Bowerman played football, basketball, and ran track under coach Bill Hayward.
After serving as an army officer in Italy during World War II, Bowerman returned to Oregon on V-J Day, disobeying orders to go with the army to Texas. When the military came to arrest him, he told them with his usual toughness that since the war was over, he had better things to do with his time. Discharge papers arrived a few days later. In 1949 Bowerman worked to develop lighter, faster running shoes, once estimating that shaving a single ounce off each shoe would translate into lifting 200 fewer pounds over the course of an average race.
Bowerman's ideas really impressed Phil Knight, a middle distance runner who had trained at Oregon during the late 1950's. Knight went on to graduate studies at the Stanford Business School, where his research focused on the possibilities of using low-priced, high-tech Japanese sports shoes to end the dominance of such German running shoe firms as Adidas. Knight and Bowerman went into business together in 1964, each putting $500 into a company called Blue Ribbon Sports. They started by importing and marketing Japanese running shoes in the United States. The first year sold 1,300 pairs.
Bowerman and Knight began designing their own shoes in 1971 after a dispute with their original Japanese supplier. They renamed their company Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory, and adopted as a logo the familiar "swoosh," which had been designed by a student, Carolyn Davidson, for $35. Nike's first success came with the "waffle sole" shoe designed when Bowerman heated rubber compounds in his wife's waffle iron. Light and springy, waffle-sole shoes were introduced at the U.S. trials for the 1972 Olympics, held that year at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. Helped by Bowerman's reputation as a coach, Nike running shoes quickly caught the attention of leading athletes. Through the 1960's and early 1970's Bowerman's Oregon track teams won four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) outdoor championships. Ten of his runners broke the four-minute mile. Athletes who benefited from Bowerman's coaching included Steve Prefontaine, Alberto Salazar, Mac Wilkins, Kenny Moore, Wade Bell, and Dyrol Burleson. Bowerman's devotion to his athletes was intense, and no one who trained with Bowerman ever forgot him.
Bowerman shared in the comany's financial success, but he paid a price. A glue he used in his early shoe design experiments contained hexane, a chemical whose fumes permanently damaged his neurological system. Bowerman was left with a limp and was forced to wear a leg brace. Always a maverick, Bowerman refused induction into the Natonal Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1981 because Bill Hayward, his track coach at Oregon, had never recieved the same honor.
Bowerman's father, William Jake Bowerman, Sr., an attorney and politician, left his mother, Elizabeth Hoover, when their son was just two years old. Bowerman and his three siblings were raised in Fossil and Medford, Oregon, by his mother and aunts. Bill attended Medford High School, where he became involved in athletics. As an undergraduate at the University of Oregon during the early 1930's, Bowerman played football, basketball, and ran track under coach Bill Hayward.
After serving as an army officer in Italy during World War II, Bowerman returned to Oregon on V-J Day, disobeying orders to go with the army to Texas. When the military came to arrest him, he told them with his usual toughness that since the war was over, he had better things to do with his time. Discharge papers arrived a few days later. In 1949 Bowerman worked to develop lighter, faster running shoes, once estimating that shaving a single ounce off each shoe would translate into lifting 200 fewer pounds over the course of an average race.
Bowerman's ideas really impressed Phil Knight, a middle distance runner who had trained at Oregon during the late 1950's. Knight went on to graduate studies at the Stanford Business School, where his research focused on the possibilities of using low-priced, high-tech Japanese sports shoes to end the dominance of such German running shoe firms as Adidas. Knight and Bowerman went into business together in 1964, each putting $500 into a company called Blue Ribbon Sports. They started by importing and marketing Japanese running shoes in the United States. The first year sold 1,300 pairs.
Bowerman and Knight began designing their own shoes in 1971 after a dispute with their original Japanese supplier. They renamed their company Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory, and adopted as a logo the familiar "swoosh," which had been designed by a student, Carolyn Davidson, for $35. Nike's first success came with the "waffle sole" shoe designed when Bowerman heated rubber compounds in his wife's waffle iron. Light and springy, waffle-sole shoes were introduced at the U.S. trials for the 1972 Olympics, held that year at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. Helped by Bowerman's reputation as a coach, Nike running shoes quickly caught the attention of leading athletes. Through the 1960's and early 1970's Bowerman's Oregon track teams won four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) outdoor championships. Ten of his runners broke the four-minute mile. Athletes who benefited from Bowerman's coaching included Steve Prefontaine, Alberto Salazar, Mac Wilkins, Kenny Moore, Wade Bell, and Dyrol Burleson. Bowerman's devotion to his athletes was intense, and no one who trained with Bowerman ever forgot him.
Bowerman shared in the comany's financial success, but he paid a price. A glue he used in his early shoe design experiments contained hexane, a chemical whose fumes permanently damaged his neurological system. Bowerman was left with a limp and was forced to wear a leg brace. Always a maverick, Bowerman refused induction into the Natonal Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1981 because Bill Hayward, his track coach at Oregon, had never recieved the same honor.