(Feb. 19, 1911 – Dec. 24, 1999) Running, coaching, inventing, promoting; Bill Bowerman is easily one of the state’s most memorable figures – even having a key role in the creation of Nike, Inc.

Born in Portland in 1911, Bill grew up as the son of the state’s 13th governor (1910-11), Jay Bowerman, and attended Medford for high school. He played football and in the school band, and then played football for the University of Oregon while studying Journalism. He then moved to Portland and became a teacher and athletic coach.
Following service in World War II, Bowerman became a coach in Medford, and then head coach for the University of Oregon track and field team in 1948, following the retirement of Bill Hayward, who the school’s stadium had been named for since it’s inception in 1919.

Bill helped the program grow to a national level, and then moved it to championship level with the aid of the stadium, which played host to the NCAA finals in both 1962 and ‘64. The Ducks won the national title both years, then again in ‘65 and ‘70. By that time, Bill had established the program for its tradition in running, but other events as well with the Ducks eventually having an individual champion in 15 of the 19 NCAA events. In ‘64, the team swept the top three spots in the javelin. In his career as coach through 1973, Bill guided the team to four titles, 24 individual titles and 33 Olympians.

Bill’s greatest coaching accomplishments were in running, especially with the arrival of Steve Prefontaine in 1970. With Pre in tow, Bill coached the 1972 U.S. Olympic team in Munich. His accomplishments were off the track, too, with Nike.

Bill had become a co-founder of Nike in 1964 with one-time Oregon runner Phil Knight, who named the company Blue Ribbon Sports at the time. Bill helped the company’s market expand by promoting running to the general public, even writing the book “Jogging” in 1967 along with cardiologist W.E. Harris. The book sold more than one million copies. With Blue Ribbon Sports renaming itself Nike and producing its own shoes, Bill helped invent those shoes, creating the popular “waffle trainer” by using his wife’s waffle iron – a wedding gift from 1936 – to design the shoe’s sole.

Upon retiring from Oregon, he helped develop the Athletics West athletics team that supported amateur athletes.
Bill’s legacy is well remembered past his death in 1999. The Nike campus in Beaverton is named One Bowerman Drive. The building housing the Oregon track locker room is named after him, as is college track’s version of the Heisman Trophy, called simply The Bowerman. He is a member of the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, as well as the University of Oregon Hall of Fame.

Even the National Inventors Hall of Fame inducted Bill in 2014 for his work with the “modern athletic shoe.”
He is buried in Fossil.