William j bowerman biography of christopher columbus

2/19/1911–12/24/1999

AMERICAN

RUNNING-SHOE DEVELOPER

Bill Bowerman was a long time track coach at the University of Oregon.

Bowerman coached numerous Olympic and world champions and he is regarded as one of the finest track coaches in the history of the sport. Renowned as a master tactician, Bowerman was the head coach of the United States Olympic track team at the 1972 Olympics, and among his runners at Oregon was the legendary American middle distance runner Steve Prefontaine.

Bowerman had been sufficiently distressed by the quality of running shoes available to his track athletes in the late 1950s that he made some of their shoes himself.

William j bowerman biography of christopher columbus book

The first of his runners to try a pair of Bowerman's shoes was Phil Knight, a miler on the Oregon team. In the early 1960s Bowerman subsequently formed a partnership with Knight, to manufacture and market running shoes of their own design.

The Knight/Bowerman partnership later became Nike, a company that ultimatel