Trials cap resurgence for track

Apocryphal or not, the story goes that Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman returned from a 1962 trip to New Zealand and changed American culture.

Bowerman brought back the concept that running could be a means to health and physical fitness as well as a way to advance the football or escape the neighbor’s dog.

The concept caught fire, particularly in Bowerman’s home state, where runners are omnipresent on streets, bike paths and forest trails, where a love of competitive track and field has been preserved and nurtured and where a waffle-soled running shoe blossomed into a giant sports-equipment maker.

– Excerpt from The Oregonian, April 20, 2008