So last night i caught a program on PBS. Its the Oregon Experience and it was on Bill Bowerman. At barely half an hour i recommend watching it. It was interesting.
umm, a few things i guess. he did coach a number of olympic athletes as well as cofound Nike. Knight was on camera saying he got a letter of resignation like once a month from Bowerman because of the shoes. it's also cool to see the vintage footage where everyone is forefoot landing. one guy said he trained bf like it was no big deal. like i said its barely 30mins and worth a watch.
I'm pretty sure they kept going in a more "artistic" direction that often deviated from his designs. Must have been a pretty big disconnect. How many shoes could they have been designing each month for him to be threatening over, considering how long it takes for a single shoe model to be released? There must have been a veritable tug of war multiple times for each design.
Amazing man though, and a pretty fair capsule of his life. Was a bit disappointed when they left running and coaching to cover the Rajneesh compound problem. I know he was instrumental in it, but seemed a bit odd to finish with that.
Here's the link. Thanks Mike for that heads up. Definitely worth the time it took to watch it. John I agree with you about the cult stuff detracting from it.
"If you have done your best, you are the winner" was a quote he was known for. That troubles me in a good way.
Joshh, thanks for the link. i got lucky and just happened to flip on pbs when it came on. i liked the movie about Prefontaine if anyone hasn't seen it. "Without Limits". with Billy Crudup as Pre and Donald Sutherland as Bowerman. At Pre's eulogy Sutherland says "Pre taught him it's not about winning but whether or not you gave it your all."