Who is Bill Bowerman? Try the greatest coach that there ever was. For 26 years, he coached the University of Oregon, leading them to 4 national titles and producing 24 individual NCAA champions, 44 All-Americans, and 19 Olympians. Bowerman dedicated his life to creating the greatest runners in the world. Not only did he invent superior training programs, but also made food supplements for his athletes and designed the first all weather track surfaces. He redefined coaching and in effect helped Steve Prefontaine become the greatest long distance runner America ever saw. But Bowerman didn't stop there. Joining up with former pupil Phil Knight, he created the company now known as Nike. It began when Bowerman was designing shoes for his Oregon team using his wife's waffle iron. He pressed it on foam pads to create lightweight, supportive shoes for each of his runners. This idea works so well that even today almost every Nike shoe is built with a waffle design on the bottom. According to legend, when Bowerman gave the shoes to Pre (making him Nike's first athlete), Pre said the Nike swoosh, "Looks like needless air resistance to me." As if he hadn't done enough for the sport of running, in 1963, Bill Bowerman with heart specialist W.E. Harris, wrote the book Jogging. It described how daily jogging can extend the average human life span. The book caused millions to begin jogging and ineffect, started a running revolution in the United States of America. Sadly, on December 25, 1999, Bill Bowerman passed away in his sleep.