A Shared History

Published by The Register-Guard on July 31, 2016

For Bill Bowerman, coaching the U.S. Olympic track and field team was hardly a career pinnacle.

The legendary Oregon coach and Nike co-founder returned from the 1972 Olympics disillusioned and bitter, calling it the worst experience of his life.

“Who in the hell will ever want to go to the Olympic Games?” he told The Register-Guard a few weeks after coaching Team USA in Munich. 

Bowerman was emphatic that, even if offered the chance to coach in 1976, he wouldn’t take it. He considered himself “too damn old” at 61 and said the next Olympic coach should be younger than 50.