Bowerman and the Men of Oregon Quotes

“Keeping vivid both the story of Pre and the truths Bowman held to be vital-namely, that we are all physical entities, that we all have the ability to get better, but to do that we have to accept our limits at any given moment and work within them. Great coaches are great because they see and help transcend those limits. If that is not an immortal message, it should be.”
― Kenny Moore, Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Co-founder

“The ancient Greeks," Bowman said, echoing his response to the Munich terror, "believed the Olympic arena so sacred they stopped their wars for them. Now we believe our wars are so sacred we sacrifice Olympics for them.”
― Kenny Moore, Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Co-founder

“When he talked with us about goals and hopes, he asked us, though never in so many words, to balance the hunger that is in all runners with some grasp of what our predecessors had achieved. The thing was not to blindly disregard limits but to understand the odds, even as one refused to accept them. He asked us, then, to leave open a tiny window of possibility. "If you go out to race," he said, "and know you'll lose, there's no probability involved. You'll lose. But if you go out knowing you will never give up, you'll still lose most of the time, but you'll be in the best position to kick from on that rare day when everything breaks right.”
― Kenny Moore, Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Co-founder

“All of a sudden people were asking, "Where were these guy coming from?" As the world would soon learn, Bowman hasn't developed a solitary prodigy. He was shaping a succession of them.”
― Kenny Moore, Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Co-founder