Sisters commemorates an Oregon great

The Sisters commmunity shared sketches of the life of legendary University of Oregon track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Bill Bowerman, in two events last week.

As an expansion of the Deschutes County Library Foundation's fourth annual countywide program "A Novel Idea...Read Together," Sisters Movie House hosted the film "One Day in September" and Sisters Athletic Club offered a presentation by the "Three Amigos" who told the Nike story.

Last Thursday night's film screening brought community members to the movie house to view the film and share their perceptions. A short clip of the insights of Barbara Bowerman was aired. She commented on the handling by the German government of the Israeli hostage crisis during the 1972 Olympics in Munich and her husband's reactions to the incident.

Sisters filmmakers Doug Barry and Rick Cullis of Fluid Images Film and Video Productions accompanied by movie house owner Lisa Clausen recently traveled to Fossil, Oregon, Bowerman's hometown and Barbara's current home, to shoot this short piece.

The movie depicts the events that changed Bowerman's life. Barbara noted that from the moment he arrived in Munich, Bowerman was concerned about security.

"My husband Bill and all of his athletes had been working for more than a year on being prepared for this mentally and physically to have their whole devotion for this 10 minutes or the hour that they were going to be running in the Munich Olympics, and two days before the end of the Olympics when the most important races were going to be run they suddenly had this terrible tragedy happen right to the people who were living in the Olympic village," she said.

Sunday's presentation at Sisters Athletic Club attracted some 70 folks to focus on a different chapter in Bowerman's life: Nike.

Former Oregon runner Geoff Hollister said: "Just like an individual has a personality, so does a corporation. It develops its personality through experience and growth just like an individual does."

The personality of Nike has its strengths and weaknesses. In the discussions Hollister, Bob Woodell, one of Nike's former presidents, and Nelson Farris, who is known as Nike's in-house historian, went out of their way to ensure that they were open, commenting as much about the company's faults and mistakes as they did the victories.

"Once I was asked by a new employee how you could get fired. I told him that you wouldn't get fired for making a mistake, but you would get fired for trying to cover it up," said Woodell.

When asked about the biggest mistake Nike has ever made, Farris did not have to think. He immediately responded: "We missed the whole aerobics thing. Jazzercise came upon us, and we just thought it was a passing fad. We were making some good shoes, but this was a male culture, and they were clunky and firm. Reebok though

understood what was needed and produced a lightweight, soft shoe that women loved, and they became a billion dollar company overnight. We really missed the boat on that one."

Woodell reminisced about how hard things were in the early days.

"I was making $600 a month and there weren't very many of us.

I knew that we (Nike) were struggling to make ends meet, so I didn't cash my checks for two months, since I had some savings and didn't need it.

One day, Phil (Knight, Nike's co-founder) came up to me and said that he noticed I hadn't cashed my checks, and I explained why to him.

He said, 'OK, just let me know a few days before you cash one, and I will make sure that it is covered.' When I needed to cash the check, I told him a few days in advance and he held off on the phone and a couple of other things to make sure that my check would clear.

It seems funny now that a $600 check would have bankrupted the main corporate account back in those days."

Kenny Moore's book "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon" is the feature of this year's "A Novel Idea" program. Moore will read from his book at Sisters Movie House on Saturday, May 12 at 11 a.m.