Fortune 2022: Bill Bowerman – that's how much money Bill Bowerman has

Bill Bowerman Net Worth: Bill Bowerman was an American track and field coach and entrepreneur who was worth $400 million at the time of his death. Bowerman is best known for co-founding Nike with Phil Knight. Bowerman was also the inventor of some of Nike's best-selling models, including the Cortez and the Waffle Racer.

Bowerman himself supported the company and helped Nike become the world-renowned name it is today. Bowerman himself made the shoes in his own home using a waffle maker in the kitchen.

He passed away in December 1999.

Bill Bowerman's Wealth/Nike Stock: On the day Nike went public in December 1980, Bill Bowerman owned approximately 26 million shares of the company. At the end of the first day of trading, these shares were worth $9 million. On the day of his death in 1999, Bowerman's stake was worth $390 million. If Bill were alive today, his 26 million shares would be worth $3.5 billion.

Early Life: Bill Bowerman was born in February 1911 in Portland, Oregon.

Bowerman's father was former Oregon Governor Jay Bowerman. His mother grew up in Fossil, Oregon. After Jay and Bowerman's mother divorced in 1913, the family moved to Fossil. Bowerman had two older brothers and a sister. He had a twin brother named Thomas who died in a tragic elevator accident when Bowerman was only 2 years old.

Bowerman attended schools in Medford and Seattle before returning to Medford to attend high school. Bowerman played in the high school band and was on the school football team in his junior and senior years. In high school, Bowerman met Barbara Young, whom he later married.

Educational years: Bowerman attended the University of Oregon in 1929, where he played for the football team and studied journalism.

Most importantly, Bowerman joined the college's track and field team, which began his lifelong association with the sport. Bowerman was also a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

After graduating from college, Bowerman taught biology and coached football at Franklin High School in Portland, Oregon. He took up this position in 1934. However, in 1935 Bowerman moved back to Medford to both teach and coach football.

He helped the team to win the state championship title (1940). After the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor that led the US into World War II, Bowerman had to put his coaching and teaching career on hold to join the ROTC and the Army Reserve. He enlisted in the US Army and achieved the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Postwar/University of Oregon: After World War II, Bowerman returned to his position as a coach and educator at Medford High School. Bowerman and his family moved to Eugene, Oregon, where Bowerman was hired as the head coach of the track team at Bowerman's alma mater, the University of Oregon. He took office on July 1, 1948.

Bowerman and his Oregon men's track team won 24 NCAA individual championships (winning 15 of 19 disciplines), not to mention 4 NCAA titles (1962, 1964, 1965 and 1970). In just 24 years with Bowerman as head coach, the team achieved 16 top 10 finishes in the NCAA.

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Bowerman's track teams had 33 Olympians, 38 conference champions, and 64 All-Americans. He has coached many successful athletes, including 31 Olympians, 12 American record holders, 51 All-Americans, 22 NCAA champions, and 16 runners who beat the four-minute mile. After all, Bowerman was a coach at the University of Oregon for 24 years and led the team to victory in 23 of those years. Bowerman's teams have finished in the nation's top 10 16 times.

One of the athletes Bowerman coached at the university was his future Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

Nike: In 1964, Phil visited Bill and Barbara Bowerman to propose the idea of ​​starting a shoe company together. In fact, it was Barbara who contributed $500 in seed capital to the company.

Bowerman and Knight soon formed a distribution company which they called Blue Ribbon Sports. Initially, the company sold shoes from other manufacturers, mainly from Japan. Eventually they moved on to making their own shoes.

Bowerman's forward-thinking design ideas led to the development of his Nike Cortez running shoe (1968), which became a best-seller among track and field athletes and remains one of Nike's most recognizable, identifiable and iconic shoe designs to this day. Bowerman went on to design several more Nike shoes. Most famously, Bowerman used his wife's Belgian waffle iron to design a new sole that offered more grip while still being lightweight.

Bowerman's famous design inspiration also led to the introduction of the "Moon Shoe" (1972). Bowerman's further refinements also resulted in the Nike "Waffle Trainer" (1974), which helped popularize the Nike brand. However, Bowerman's shoe experiments came at a price.

Working in small, unventilated spaces and using adhesives and solvents containing toxic ingredients, Bowerman suffered severe nerve damage that led to significant mobility problems. Sadly, Bowerman eventually found himself unable to walk in the shoes he had made himself.

Legacy: Bowerman has been inducted into many halls of fame, including the National Distance Running HOF, the USA National Track and Field HOF, and the Oregon Sports HOF.

Bill Bowerman died on December 24, 1999 at the age of 88.

Bill Bowerman Net Worth 2021 - Unbelievable how much money Bill Bowerman had in 2021