Walker's Pace: Rupp, Bowerman, Knight Garner Honors
Walker's Pace: Rupp, Bowerman, Knight Garner Honors
Wednesday,June 3, 3:45 p.m. PDT
Galen Rupp, the late Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight were announced as major award winners by a pair of organizations on Wednesday.
Rupp was named the Pacific-10 Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men's track and field. It's an award he also won for men's cross country in the fall. Here's the rest of the release from the Pac-10.
Greg Lagreid, Washington State - Baseball, 3.48 - finance
Jessica Mapes, Arizona State - Softball, 4.11 - family and
human development
Alex
Williams,
Oregon State - Men’s Golf, 3.65 - history
Azahara
Mu?oz,
Arizona State - Women's golf, 3.96 - psychology
Michael
Look,
UCLA - Men’s tennis, 3.91 - business/economics
Danielle
Steinberg,
Arizona - Women’s tennis, 3.88 - sociology
Mark
Murphy,
Stanford - Men’s rowing, 3.57 - mechanical engineering
Robin Hextrum, USC - Women’s
rowing, 3.80 - fine arts
Galen Rupp, Oregon - Men’s track & field, 3.87 -
business administration
Sarah Stevens, Arizona State - Women’s track & field,
4.04 - M.Ed. elementary education
In order to be eligible for the Pac-10
Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in
athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade
point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the
scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in
residence at the institution. Each Pac-10 institution nominates one individual
per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-10 staff members
at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletic
accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in the voting for the
award.
A
Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-10’s 22 sponsored
sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country,
women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s
gymnastics, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer,
softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s
tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field,
women’s volleyball, and wrestling.
Scholar-Athletes
of the Year in each sport will receive a commemorative award. Toyo? will donate
$1,000 to the scholarship funds of the institution's athletic department of
each winner in recognition of their accomplishments.
"The
Pac-10 and Toyo partnered in recognizing these student-athletes during the
2007-08 academic year and we are proud to continue recognizing these special
student-athletes," said Tom Hansen, Commissioner of the Pac-10. "To
be selected as the best student-athlete in any sport in the Pac-10 is a very
special honor, and these are special young people, in academics as well as athletics.
We are very appreciative that Toyo is helping them gain the recognition they
deserve for their unique achievements."
The
Pac-10 Conference, in cooperation with Pac-10 corporate partner Toyo Tires,
established the “Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards, presented by Toyo
Tires” during the 2008-09 academic year.
Other
nominees included:
Baseball: John Wallace, OSU; Joey August,
Stanford; Gino Aielli, UCLA.
Softball: Melissa Rice, ORE; Paige Lowe, OSU;
Missy Penna, STAN.
Men’s
Golf:
None.
Women’s
Golf:
Shannon Yocum, CAL; Cathryn Bristow, ORE; Mari Chun, STAN; Tiffany Joh, UCLA;
Jessica Black, WSU.
Men’s
Tennis:
Mike Myrhed, ORE; Matt Bruch, STAN; Patrik Fischer, WASH.
Women’s
Tennis:
Laila Abdala, ASU; Carmen Seremeta, ORE; Jessica Nguyen, STAN; Amanda Fink,
USC; Aleksandra Cekic, WSU.
Men’s
Rowing:
Janis Fontein, CAL; Will Gustafson, OSU; Martin Reschke, UCLA; Lowell Neal,
WASH; Andrew Winters, WSU.
Women’s
Rowing:
Louise Kinder, CAL; Jane Ivey, OSU; Lauren Hofmayer, STAN; Rachel Powers, WASH;
Carly Farris, WSU.
Men’s
Track & Field: Xuehan Xiong, ARIZ; Garrett Heath, STAN; Kyle Shackleton,
UCLA; Andrew Gausepohl, USC.
Women’s
Track & Field: Kalindra McFadden, ORE; Holly Thomson; Alicia Follmar,
STAN; Rhonda Watkins, UCLA; Sara Tran?, WSU.
Also Wednesday, the National Football Foundation announced that Knight and Bowerman will receive that organization's highest award, the Gold Medal. Link to the NFF website by clicking here, or read the details from the NFF below:
"This year's NFF Major Awards honorees stand at the very top of their respective fields, embodying the term leadership," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "We are proud to celebrate their successes and recognize their great contributions to our sport."
Each honoree will accept their award at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 8, 2009, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Also that evening, the NFF will recognize the National Scholar-Athlete class (announced in the fall); award the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth; and induct the 2009 Football Bowl Subdivision College Football Hall of Fame Class.
"The awards committee worked incredibly hard to identify an extraordinary list of honorees for the 2009 major awards," said NFF Awards Committee Chairman Bob Mulcahy. "Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight personify the American dream. Their drive for perfection has set the standard for an entire industry, and at the collegiate level their efforts have impacted virtually every sport and athletics department in the country. All of our 2009 honorees exhibit this same drive for excellence, and we look forward to celebrating their accomplishments at our annual awards dinner."
The Nike duo becomes the 54th and 55th recipients of the NFF's Gold Medal. Bestowed since 1958, previous honorees include seven U.S. Presidents, four U.S. Generals, three U.S. Admirals, one U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 26 Corporate CEOs and Chairmen, John Wayne and Jackie Robinson.
Billy Payne becomes the 38th recipient of the NFF Distinguished American Award, joining a list that includes 1966 inaugural recipient Bill Carpenter, Vince Lombardi, Bob Hope, Jimmie Stewart, Pete Rozelle and the late Pat Tillman. The other awards also boast a rich history of previous honorees with the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award presented since 1974, the Outstanding Official Award since 1984, the Chris Schenkel Award since 1996, and the John L. Toner Award since 1997.
- Please see below for individual bios on each award winner -
THE GOLD MEDAL
The highest and most prestigious award bestowed by the Foundation, the Gold Medal has been awarded annually since 1958 and recognizes an outstanding American who has demonstrated integrity and honesty, achieved significant career success and has reflected the basic values of those who have excelled in amateur sport, particularly football.
BILL BOWERMAN & PHIL KNIGHT
Co-Founders of Nike, Inc.
From a track coach's waffle iron to the most famous company in sports, the story of Nike is interwoven through the lives of Bill Bowerman and his former athlete-turned- entrepreneur, Phil Knight.
It was during his time as a graduate student at Stanford that Knight took a class called "Small Business Management" and became intrigued with the idea of starting his own shoe company. He wrote a paper for the class suggesting that low priced, high quality exports from Japan could replace German manufacturers as the dominant athletic shoe supplier to the United States. Following graduation, Knight traveled to Japan and contacted the Onitsuka Company, the manufacturer of Tiger shoes. He convinced the company to give him a distribution deal and exclusive rights in the western United States that eventually led him to call on an old friend and his former track coach at the University of Oregon, Bill Bowerman.
In a partnership that began in 1964 with investment of $500 each in a start-up company called Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), Knight began selling shoes out of his car at track events across the west. Realizing the success of the company hinged on a brand that conveyed speed and motion, the duo enlisted a graphic design student who ultimately came up with the famous "Swoosh." With a new logo and a football cleat they purchased from a company in Mexico, BRS launched a new brand called Nike after the Greek goddess of victory, selling the newly branded 'Nike' cleats for the first time in 1971.
For the 1972 Olympic Track and Field Trials in Oregon, the company created running shoes based on a prototype Bowerman had designed using his wife's waffle maker during his time as Oregon's head track coach. Bowerman also designed a shoe specifically for artificial turf, called the Astro-Grabber, which was worn by NFL players including Bob Newland and Dan Fouts. The success of the Waffle Trainer and Astro Grabber prompted the company to sign an agreement in 1977 with aerospace engineer Frank Rudy, who led a design team to invent the "Nike Air" technology that was first utilized in the "Tailwind" running shoe in 1978. Only two years later, the company went public and began trading on the NASDAQ at $22 a share.
In 1984, the company banked its future on an NBA rookie named Michael Jordan in an effort to align the brand with the greatest athletes in the world. The strategy worked, and today Nike has sponsorship deals with most the world's most recognizable athletes including Jordan, NFL and MLB star Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods and former Oklahoma standout and current Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. The "Just Do It" campaign, launched in 1988, has become one of the world's most iconic marketing campaigns, and is still used today.
Presently, Nike is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel with annual revenue in excess of $19.5 billion. Nike has invested more than $1 billion in colleges and universities through sports marketing, brand marketing, advertising and licensing royalties. The last 10 BCS champions wore the Nike brand and 70 percent of the teams that qualified for bowls were Nike-sponsored programs.
Bill Bowerman
Born in Portland, Ore., Bill Bowerman played football at Medford High and led his team to the state title in 1928. After graduating, he attended the University of Oregon with the ambition of attending medical school. Bowerman played football for Oregon, leading the Ducks in an upset of NYU that cost the Violets a shot at the 1931 national championship. Upon graduation from Oregon, Bowerman lacked the financial resources to attend medical school. Instead, he embarked on his career as a coach, starting with eight-year stint back at Medford High School until enlisting to serve in World War II as a member of the 10th Mountain Division. In 1948, he landed the head track coach job at Oregon, a position he would hold until 1973. During his tenure at Oregon, Bowerman's athletes won 24 individual NCAA Championships, and his team finished in the top ten 13 of his 24 seasons as head coach. Bowerman passed away in December 1999 at the age of 88. Apart from his work with Nike, he became a distinguished philanthropist, supporting grassroots track and field programs across the United States through the Bill Bowerman Foundation. He is survived by his wife Barbara, and sons Jon H. Bowerman, Jay W. Bowerman and Tom Bowerman, and four grandchildren.
Phil Knight
A native of Portland as well, Knight ran track in high school and joined the cross country and track teams after enrolling at Oregon in 1955. Coached by Bowerman, he lettered three years for the Ducks. Knight graduated in 1959 with a degree in business and joined the U.S. Army as a 2nd Lieutenant. Following one year of active duty, he enrolled in Stanford University and received his M.B.A in 1962. After co-founding Nike with Bowerman, Knight served as CEO of the company until he stepped down in 2004, retaining the title of chairman of the board. Extremely active with both his alma maters, he has donated more than $250 million to Oregon and Stanford. Knight's donations to Oregon have led to the expansion of Autzen Stadium, which included the addition of 12,000 seats, 32 luxury suites, new artificial turf and a VIP club that holds 3,200 people. In return Knight has a personalized locker in the team locker-room, complete with a name plate that includes his hometown, just like the players. Apart from his work with Nike, Knight owns an animation studio in Portland called Laika, which released its first major film in February 2009. Knight and his wife Penny have three children: sons Travis and Matthew (deceased) and daughter Kristina. They also have seven grandchildren.
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