Track And Field; Legendary Coach Bill Bowerman Dies At Age 88; He Trained Champions, Invented Waffle Sole

"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race, it's to test the limits of the human heart."

- Bill Bowerman, played by Donald Sutherland in "Without Limits"

PORTLAND - Bill Bowerman, the Oregon track coach who trained champions, pressed foam rubber into his wife's waffle iron to create the sole for the modern running shoe, and became a co-founder of Nike, has died. He was 88.

He died in his sleep overnight - either Friday night or early yesterday in his home in Fossil, company spokesman Scott Reames said.

Bowerman was the U.S. track coach at the terrorist-scarred 1972 Munich Olympics. He helped introduce jogging to the masses with his book on the subject in 1967.

He coached at Oregon from 1949-72, and his most famous runner there was Steve Prefontaine, the prodigy who inspired a generation of distance runners. Prefontaine died in a car crash in 1975.

Nike chairman Phil Knight, one of Bowerman's pupils, called him one of the great influences on his life. Together they formed what became a multibillion-dollar shoe and apparel company. Bowerman retired from the Nike board of directors this year.

"He was for so many of us a hero, leader and most of all teacher," Knight said. "My sadness at his passing is beyond words."

The company announced in October that a silhouette of Bowerman in his old Tyrolean hat would appear on Nike running shoes, along with a smaller "swoosh."

Bowerman created the modern running shoe in the late 1960s by fashioning a lightweight sole with leather, glue, latex and his wife's waffle iron. He experimented with different cushions and layers of material to give his runners an edge.

Knight, who trained under Bowerman in the late '50s and who was later a business student at Stanford, teamed with his old coach for an operation the evolved into Nike.

Bowerman's team wore the shoes. Athletes around the world began wearing them, then the public.

Bowerman once said: "God determines how fast you're going to run; I can only help with mechanics."

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.

Individually, his athletes set 13 world and 22 U.S. records. Among his 23 Olympic athletes was 1960 gold medalist Otis Davis, who won the 400 and ran on the winning 1,600 relay. His other top athletes included Dyrol Burleson, Jim Grelle, Bill Dellinger, Ken Moore, Wade Bell, Steve Savage and Keith Forman.

He refused to take much credit for building Oregon into a national track power, and would say: "The athlete makes himself, the coach doesn't make the athlete."

Bowerman said his predecessor, Bill Hayward, who coached from 1904-1947, took charge at the rain-drenched school, separating the "swimmers from the sunbathers."

Bowerman, who was born in Portland, is survived by his wife, Barbara, and sons, Jon Bowerman, Jay Bowerman and Tom Bowerman, and four grandchildren.