Bill Bowerman's swoosh

One bright early morning in 1971, high above the McKenzie River outside of Eugene (Oregon, USA), Bill and his wife Barbara sat down for breakfast. Staring at but not eating the waffles that lay before him, Bowerman was in the midst of an athletic epiphany. He saw the future of running shoes, the opportunity to improve training techniques, he saw improved traction and faster times.

Soon he was pouring rubber into Barbara's waffle iron, creating the modern running outsole. This was no accident. Nor was it luck. Bowerman was always looking for ways to give his runners an edge.

Bill was always the one person who had no trouble whatsoever staying focused on the performance mandate of athletic product. He always had the purity of conviction when it came to an athlete's needs:

- What's that piece of rubber on the side of the shoe there? - he would ask knowingly.
- Uh, that's the Swoosh, Bill, our company's logo.
- Well, take it off. It weighs too damn much.

Again, purity of conviction.

In June 1999, Bowerman stepped down as a member of the Nike Board of Directors, a post he held since 1968. In honor of his contributions to the sport of running and to the development of this company, Nike established the Bowerman Foundation. Nike is contributing a $1 million matching-funds program to the foundation, which will renovate youth track-and-field facilities around the world through 2005. Along with this track restoration project, Nike saluted Bowerman and his unique spirit with a line of high-performance track-and-field footwear - the Bowerman Series.

As a coach, Bowerman taught his athletes to seek the competitive advantage at every turn. This guiding principle served his athletes and Nike well. At Bowerman's retirement ceremony, Knight said, "Above all, I think Bill considered himself a professor of competitive response. Those are lessons you learn for all of life."

Six months after his retirement in 1999, Bill Bowerman died in his sleep on Christmas Eve in his home in Fossil, Oregon. He was 88 years old. Just like the old man to run off without telling anyone.