Bill Bowerman, American Coach and Inventor

William Jay Bill Bowerman (1911-1999) was an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc. He trained Olympic athletes, All-Americans, American record-holders, NCAA champions and close to 20 sub-4 minute milers. During his 24 years as coach at the University of Oregon, the Ducks track and field team had a winning season every season but one, attained 4 NCAA titles, and finished in the top 10 in the nation 16 times. Bowerman designed several Nike shoes, but is best known for ruining his wife's waffle iron in 1970 or 1971, experimenting with the idea of using waffle-ironed rubber to create a new sole for footwear that would grip but be lightweight. Bowerman was obsessed with shaving weight off his athletes running shoes. He believed that custom-made shoes would weigh less on the feet of his runners and cut down on blisters, as well as reduce the overall drag on their energy for every ounce he could remove from the shoe. Bowerman died in his sleep at his home at the age of 88 on Christmas Eve, 1999

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Co Founder Co-founder Footwear Lightweight Nike Oregon Runners Sneaker

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