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Track coach, shoe innovator Bowerman dies Staff and wire reports PORTLAND -- Bill Bowerman, the Medford product and Oregon track coach who invented the modern running shoe with the help of his wife's waffle iron, co-founded Nike and coached running legend Steve Prefontaine, has died, a company spokesman said. He was 88. Bowerman died in his sleep late Friday or early Saturday in his home in Fossil, said Scott Reames, communications manager for Nike. Nike Chairman Phil Knight expressed grief. "In 1998, Fortune magazine asked me, who had been around so many heroes, to name my personal hero. And without hesitation, I named Bill Bowerman. He was for so many of us a hero, leader and most of all teacher. "My sadness at his passing is beyond words." Bowerman officially retired from the Nike board of directors earlier this year. Bowerman coached at Oregon from 1948-72. He got his start in Medford, coaching at what was then Medford High School. "My personal education and philosophy is 100 percent Medford," he once said. "A good education and a good athletic program go hand in hand. We don't go out there to get second place." In the 1960s Bowerman began experimenting with different cushions and layers of material to give his runners an edge. In the late '60s, he pressed foam rubber into the waffle iron, and the modern distance-running sole was born. Knight was one of Bowerman's pupils. Together they formed Nike, the multibillion-dollar shoe and apparel company. Bowerman's most famous athlete was Prefontaine, the brash, mustachioed prodigy who inspired a generation of distance runners. Prefontaine died in a car crash in 1975. Bowerman also coached the 1972 U.S. Olympic track team. Bowerman was an athlete at Medford in the 1920s who went on to star at the University of Oregon, then returned to Medford to coach. Bowerman-led teams were state track champions three times and won eight Hayward Relay meets. Perhaps less well-known is his record as a football coach: 59 wins against only 13 losses and eight ties in nine seasons. He left Medford after the 1947 season to return to the University of Oregon. Stan Smith of Medford played on the 1941 Medford team Bowerman took to play The Dalles for the mythical state championship before the days of playoffs (Medford lost). "He was competitive and sharp," said Smith, who went on to coach in Ashland and Eagle Point. "He was demanding, not what you'd call a players' coach." Bowerman refused to take much credit for building Oregon into a national track power and Eugene into a mecca for the sport. He said his predecessor, Bill Hayward, took charge at the rain-drenched school, separating the "swimmers from the sunbathers." Nike announced in October that a silhouette of Bowerman in his old Tyrollean hat would appear on Nike running shoes, along with a smaller "swoosh," the company's trademark symbol. Bowerman coached 24 NCAA individual champions and four NCAA Team Champions in 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1970. In 16 of 24 years, his Oregon track team finished in the top 10 in NCAA championships. He developed statewide programs for high school athletes and instituted jogging programs throughout Oregon that helped fuel the nationwide interest in jogging. In the early '60s he became very interested in making a lighter running shoe for his athletes, one not bound by heavy leather and stiff soles. By his calculation, for every ounce that was removed from the shoe's weight, 200 cumulative pounds would be lifted from the runner over the course of a one-mile race. With some latex, leather, glue and his wife's waffle iron, Bowerman developed the first lightweight outsole. This would revolutionize running shoes. Knight, who trained under Bowerman in the late '50s and who was later a business student at Stanford, teamed up with his old coach. Each chipped in $500 and manufactured 330 pairs of the new Waffle-designed shoe that they sold for $3.30 a pair. Bowerman's team wore the shoes. Athletes around the world began wearing them, followed by the public. Bowerman, who was born in Portland on Feb. 19, 1911, is survived by his wife, Barbara, and sons, Jon H. Bowerman, Jay W. Bowerman and Tom Bowerman, and four grandchildren. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA