Collection comprises the papers of
American track and field coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, who led the
University of Oregon track team, 1948- 1972, and the United States Olympic
track team, 1972. Collection includes correspondence, journals, athlete
information, publications, and photographs reflecting Bowerman's career as a
coach and his involvement in the track and field community in Oregon and the
United States. Of particular note are materials concerning Bowerman's
innovations in track surfaces and equipment, running shoes, and training
programs, and materials concerning the restoration of Hayward Field at the
University of Oregon. The collection also includes manuscripts and notes
related to Bowerman's career as a writer, including his book Jogging (1966)
which sold over one million copies and helped start wide interest in the
sport.
Repository:
University of Oregon Libraries
Special Collections & University
Archives
Collection materials are in
English,
Spanish,
Japanese, and
German.
Sponsor:
Funding for encoding this finding
aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Biographical Note
William Jay "Bill" Bowerman was born February 19, 1911 in Portland,
Oregon. Bill’s mother grew up in Fossil, Oregon, to which the family returned
after Bill's parents divorced in 1913. Bill had an older brother and sister,
Dan and Mary Elizabeth “Beth.” Bill also had a twin brother, Thomas, who died
in a tragic elevator accident when they were two years old.
Bill attended Fossil Grade School, and Medford and Seattle schools,
before returning to Medford for high school. Bill played in the high school
band and played football his senior year. Bill first met Barbara Young, the
woman he would marry, in high school in Medford. Bill came to the University of
Oregon in 1929 to play football and study journalism. After one year studying
journalism, Bill switched to a business major, which he did not like, but
decided to complete anyway. He competed in track while finishing up pre-med
courses. After graduation, Bill was set to teach school for two years and then
attend medical school. He taught biology and coached football at Franklin High
School in Portland in 1934. In 1935 he moved back to Medford to teach and coach
football. In 1936 he added the coaching responsibilities for basketball as well
as football. He started a track team at Medford High School in 1937, and gave
up his basketball coaching duties to become the track coach.
Bill and Barbara were married on June 22, 1936. Their first son, Jon
was born June 22, 1938. William J. Bowerman Jr. “Jay” was born November 17,
1942. Bill was in the Army’s Tenth Mountain Division from 1943 until 1945.
After the war, he returned to his position at Medford High School. Bill and
Barbara’s third son, Thomas, was born May 20, 1946. The family then moved to
Eugene, Oregon for Bill to become the freshman football coach at the University
of Oregon. His first day of work was July 1, 1948. Bill became the track coach
in 1949, a job he held until 1972. He also continued as freshman football coach
for several more years. In the early 1950’s Bill was also the assistant
athletic director at Oregon. Bill received his Master’s in Education from the
University of Oregon in 1953. By the mid-1950’s Bill’s only duties were
teaching and coaching track and field.
Bill made his biggest mark as a track coach. His “Track Men of Oregon”
won 24 NCAA individual titles (with wins in 15 of the 19 events contested) and
four NCAA team crowns (1962, 1964, 1965, 1970), and posted 16 Top-10 NCAA
finishes in his 24 years as head coach. His teams also boasted 33 Olympians, 38
conference champions and 64 All-Americans. At the dual level, the Ducks posted
a 114-20 record and went undefeated in 10 seasons. In addition, Bill coached
the world record setting 4-mile relay team in 1962. This team consisted of
Archie San Romani, Dyrol Burleson, Vic Reeve and Keith Forman with a time of
16:08.9.
During a trip to New Zealand in 1962, Arthur Lydiard introduced Bill
to the concept of jogging as a fitness routine. Bill brought this concept back
to the United States, and began to write articles and books about jogging. Bill
also created to jogging program in Eugene that became a national model for a
fitness program.
A Jogger’s Manual, a three-page guide, was
published shortly after Bill returned from New Zealand. In 1966, along with
cardiologist W.E. Harris, Bill published a 90-page book titled
Jogging. Due to the popularity of
Jogging, Harris and Bill published a
127-page book in 1967. To this day jogging remains a popular form of exercise
for men and women of all ages.
Bill was a highly inventive man. In addition to experimenting with
many different types of shoes, Bill also experimented with different types of
track surfaces. Bill created a rubber and asphalt mix for track runways. He
helped to create portable runways with this same mixture for use on indoor
tracks. He created a lightweight practice hurdle, which he manufactured and
sold. But his main area of invention was athletic shoes.
Bill created a training program for adjusting athletes for the high
altitude that they would experience at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. This
successful program led to his selection as the 1972 Munich Olympic Games U. S.
Track and Field head coach. The Olympians that Bill trained at Oregon included
Jack Hutchins, Dyrol Burleson, Bill Dellinger, Harry Jerome, Sig Ohlemann, Les
Tipton, Gerry Moro, Wade Bell, Kenny Moore, Steve Prefontaine, and Mac Wilkins.
Bill coached members of teams from Norway, Canada, Australia, and the United
States.
In 1970 Bill stepped back from day-to-day coaching activities to
spearhead the fundraising for renovating the Hayward Field grandstands before
the 1972 Olympic Trials. Bill officially retired as the UO head coach in 1972,
letting Bill Dellinger officially take over the reigns.
Before and after retirement, Bill worked with Phil Knight as a
co-founder of Nike (initially Blue Ribbon Shoes) to develop new and innovative
shoe designs. After retirement, Bill devoted more of his time to these
endeavors, once using his wife’s waffle iron to create a new type of “waffle”
sole for running shoes.
In 1981 Bill became aware of the Rajneesh commune who had bought
property next to his in Eastern Oregon. During the Rajneesh’s tenure in Oregon
Bill, sparred with them on many different issues.
In his retirement years Bill continued to work with Nike and coach on
a limited basis. Mac Wilkins was Bill’s final Olympian in 1984.
Bill is a member of the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, the
USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and Oregon’s
Athletic Hall of Fame.
Bill Bowerman died December 24, 1999 at his home.
Content Description
The William J. Bowerman papers contain correspondence, notes,
drawings, photographs, journals and publications. These items are divided into
eleven different series. The strength of the collection is in the
correspondence.
The Personal series is strong on general correspondence. This
correspondence is usually not related to track and field. Most of the family
correspondence is between Bill and his brother Dan. This series also contains
Bill’s military records, from his time in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division.
Bill’s philanthropic endeavors are also documented strongly in this series. The
journals and notes contained within this series may also be of particular
interest. Typically each page contains a variety of notes about a variety of
subjects. Notes about a single subject are filed under that particular
subject.
The Coaching and Teaching series contains documents related to the
time that Bill coached and taught classes at the University of Oregon. This
series is focused on the athletes and the events, administrative and meet
related materials are in other series. This series’ strength is in
correspondence. Under the Athlete Information subseries, the correspondence is
arranged by the athlete’s name, and then chronologically, workout notes are
included with the correspondence when an athlete is named on the workout forms.
The athlete portion is particularly strong on athletes prior to 1968. Among
these athletes are: Dyrol Burleson, Bill Dellinger, Phil Knight, Kenny Moore,
Jim Bailey, Harry Jerome, Wade Bell and Steve Prefontaine. This series is
adequate on workout information, but the majority of the workout sheets do not
have a particular athlete attached to them. The remaining correspondence in
this series is sorted chronologically. The Football section is not particularly
strong, yet Bill only coached football for a limited number of years, so it is
adequate.
The Track and Field Meets series consists of information directly
related to track and field meets. Correspondence between Bill and other track
coaches and meet organizers is included here. Correspondence related to meet
budgets and trip rosters are also included here. The strongest portion of this
series is in regards to the Hayward Relays, this includes results, news
articles and correspondence related to the meet. Also strong are the subseries
related to the NCAA meets and results from a variety of meets. The entirety of
this series is arranged chronologically.
The Committees series includes papers related to Bill’s service on
various local and national committees. This series is strong on correspondence
related to his service with the Amateur Athletes Union, NCAA, the National
Collegiate Track Coaches Association and on the board of the Prefontaine
Foundation. The AAU subseries also contains correspondence about Bill’s fights
in regards to athletes’ rights with the AAU. The entire series is heavy on
correspondence, which is arranged chronologically.
The Innovations series contains correspondence and notes related to
Bill’s work with different track surfaces, and indoor tracks. It also contains
correspondence that Bill had with various people and shoe manufacturers about
their shoes, and how he thought that they could be improved. Bill also
developed and produced a practice hurdle for a few years, correspondence and
promotion of this hurdle is included here. The strongest portion of this series
is in the correspondence related to the different track surfaces that Bill was
experimenting with.
The University of Oregon Administrative series is especially strong on
correspondence. This series is related to Bill’s employment at the UO. The
correspondence is generally requests for tickets, congratulations on wins, or
individuals seeking information on how they should train (non-recruits). Of
particular interest might be correspondence related to Bill’s coaching trip to
Pakistan.
The Hayward Field Restoration series covers the many restorations and
updates made to Hayward Field from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. These changes
included new track surfaces, track resurfacings, widening the track, and
replacement and moving of the grandstands. This series contains several
architectural drawings of the proposed changes to Hayward Field. The strength
of this series is the documents related to the 1972 replacement of the
grandstands so that the UO could host the Olympic Trials for that year.
The Olympics series contains correspondence, notes, and ephemera. The
ephemera consist of programs and tickets for several different Olympic games.
The strength of this series is with the correspondence and notes related to the
High Altitude training program that Bill instituted at Lake Tahoe in
preparation for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Bill’s success with this
training program led to his selection as the head U.S. Olympic Coach for track
and field for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The bulk of the material in this
series is from the 1960 Games up to the 1980 boycotted Olympic Games. Other
Olympic Games are represented, but with only limited documentation.
The Writings series consists of correspondence, manuscripts and notes
related to Bill’s prolific writing career. The particular strength of this
series is the manuscript of
Coaching Track and Field (with notes), the
manuscripts and correspondence related to his article in
Guideposts magazine “The Kitchen Table
Shoemaker,” and correspondence, manuscripts and research related to the several
different publications of
Jogging.
The Nike series is relatively small. The main highlights of this
series are early correspondence that Bill had with Phil Knight about Blue
Ribbon Shoes, patents that Bill applied for with regards to his various shoe
designs and other correspondence Bill had with a variety of people about his
shoe designs. Of particular interest in this series might be the many outlines
of people’s feet that Bill saved. This series also contains journals and notes
that are related to his work at Nike, both meeting notes and shoe design
notes.
The final series contains documents related to the Rajneesh’s time in
Eastern Oregon, covering 1981-1988. Bill’s ranch, as well as his son Jon’s
ranch, bordered the land held by the Rajneesh community. The strengths of this
series are copies of the many court cases related to the Rajneesh in Eastern
Oregon. Bill also helped to fund 1000 Friends of Oregon’s fight against the
Rajneesh. Documents and correspondence with 1000 Friends are included here. The
major strength of this series is the number of local and worldwide news
articles that Bill saved about the Rajneesh.
Use of the Collection
Alternative Forms Available :
Selected photographs from this collection are available as digital
images.
Collection must be used in Special Collections & University
Archives Reading Room.
Restrictions on Use :
Property rights reside with Special Collections & University
Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators
of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the Archivist in Special
Collections & University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission
of the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation :
[Identification of item], Bill Bowerman Papers, UA 003, Special
Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene,
Oregon.
Administrative Information
Arrangement :
Collection is organized into the following series:
Series I: Personal
Subseries A: Correspondence
Subseries B: Military
Subseries C: Personal Property
Subseries D: News Articles
Subseries E: Philanthropy
Subseries F: Journals and Notes
Series II: Coaching and Teaching
Subseries A: Courses
Subseries B: Football
Subseries C: General Correspondence
Subseries D: Cross Country
Subseries E: News Articles
Subseries F: Athlete Information
Subseries G: Track (general information)
Subseries H: Track Workouts and Notes
Subseries I: Publications
Series III: Track and Field Meets
Subseries A: Budgets
Subseries B: Officials Correspondence
Subseries C: Trip Rosters
Subseries D: Programs
Subseries E: Correspondence
Subseries F: Track Meet Results
Subseries G: Oregon Indoor Invitational
Subseries H: All-comers Meets
Subseries I: Hayward Relays
Subseries J: NCAA Championships
Subseries K: News Articles
Series IV: Committees
Subseries A: Amateur Athletic Union
Subseries B: NCAA
Subseries C: National Collegiate Track Coaches
Association
Subseries D: Prefontaine Foundation
Subseries E: Publications
Series V: Innovations
Subseries A: Track Surfaces
Subseries B: Indoor Tracks
Subseries C: Shoe Development
Subseries D: Hurdles
Subseries E: NCAA Championships
Subseries F: News Articles
Series VI: University of Oregon, Administrative
Subseries A: Correspondence
Subseries B: Jog-a-thon
Subseries C: Publications
Series VII: Hayward Field Restoration
Subseries A: 1960s Renovations
Subseries B: 1970s Renovations
Subseries C: 1980s Renovations
Series VIII: Olympics
Subseries A: Helsinki
Subseries B: Melbourne
Subseries C: Rome
Subseries D: Tokyo
Subseries E: Mexico City
Subseries F: Munich
Subseries G: Montreal
Subseries H: Moscow
Subseries I: General Publications
Series IX: Writings
Subseries A:
Coaching Track and Field
(Editions 1 & 2)
Subseries B: “Kitchen Table Shoemaker”
Subseries C:
Jogging
Subseries D: “Oregon School of Running”
Series X: Nike
Subseries A: Blue Ribbon Shoes
Subseries B: General Correspondence
Subseries C: Annual Meeting Minutes
Subseries D: Court Cases
Subseries E: Patents
Subseries F: Shoe Development
Subseries G: Publications
Series XI: Rajneesh
Subseries A: Correspondence
Subseries B: Court Cases
Subseries C: 1000 Friends of Oregon
Subseries D: News Articles
Processing Note :
Collection processed by Megan Dazey, Processing Archivist, and
completed in February 2007.
Separated Materials :
Photographs in this collection are stored separately under call number
PH339.
Books donated as part of the William J. Bowerman Library are
individually cataloged.
Moving images from this collection are stored separately. Please
contact Special Collections & University Archives for access.
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in
the collection.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online
catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or
places should search the catalog using these headings.
