By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
In part two of this series about Nike's 25-year association with the University of Illinois, Kit Morris helps tells Nike's history, how the company's famed swoosh design was created, and its dealings with an Illini legend more than two decades before his official association with the University of Illinois.
Part One: Illini Celebrate a Silver Anniversary with Nike
This is the story about the convergence of two enterprising shoe distributors, a Greek goddess, a $35 logo, an asterisk, and a fascinating deal with a skinny farm kid from Lebanon, Illinois.
What may sound like a tease for an investigative report on "60 Minutes" is actually part of the legend that culminated with the eventual collaboration 25 years ago between Nike and University of Illinois athletics.
Established in 1964, co-founders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight originally called their company Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), serving as the United States distributor of Japanese running shoes that would eventually come to be known as Asics. At the time, Bowerman was the head track and field coach at the University of Oregon, while Knight was an Oregon and Stanford grad who was beginning his career in accounting and business.
Bowerman's ultimate goal for BRS was to design and manufacture his own shoes, and distribute the product under his own brand. He had first begun tinkering with custom fit running shoes in the 1950s, combining a soft sponge midsole that would absorb road shot in the ball and heel area with a high-density outer sole that would provide extra miles of wear. Bowerman's "Tiger Cortez" shoes debuted in 1968 and became a big seller. It would be just the first of his several celebrated shoe creations.
In the Spring of 1971, it came the time to name a brand for the entire line of shoes. Knight preferred name the brand "Dimension Six." Other suggestions were "Peregrine" (a type of falcon) and "Bengal", but neither drew any enthusiasm from the company's other employees.
Yet another administrator urged that the name should have no more than two syllables and at least one exotic letter or sound in them with a Z, X or K.
One of BRS's first employees, Jeff Johnson, is credited with coming up with "Nike", named after the Greek winged goddess or victory.
Facing a factory deadline to put a name on the shoe box, Knight grudgingly went with the four-letter word that none of the shoes' initial purchasers knew exactly how to pronounce.
The box also sported a quirky yet unique logo that Bowerman and Knight hoped consumers would easily remember.
Kit Morris, Nike's Director of College Sports Marketing and UI's primary representative for most of the last 25 years, told the story of how the company's famed "swoosh" was born.
"At the time, Phil Knight was teaching accounting classes at Portland State University," said Morris. "He met a graduate student in design named Carolyn Davidson and he asked her if she would design a logo for Nike. I understand that she was trying to save up money for a prom dress at the time. She charged $2 an hour and submitted a bill for 17-and-a-half hours. So, for the princely sum of $35, the swoosh was created.
The wing design was a notion of Nike, the goddess of winged victory. There's a statue in the louvre that embodies that, that we use as a model. When Phil first saw the design, he said to Carolyn, 'Well, I don't love it, but maybe it will grow on me.' Years later, when the company went public, Mr. Knight gave Carolyn somewhere around a thousand shares or so of Nike stock. Ten years or so ago, Phil told me that she had never sold a share of it."
As for the "asterisk" part of the story—you know, that tiny star-shaped symbol that's often used to call attention to a footnote?—Morris says it's been instrumental towards Nike becoming a brand that statista.com recently estimated to be worth $35 billion.
The company's 10-word vision statement declares: "Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world."
Explains Morris, "The asterisk next to the word 'athlete' pertains to a statement by Bill Bowerman. Bill believed that if you have a body, you're an athlete."
Curiously, one of the very first high-profile athletes to wear Nike shoes—and the very first to wear Nike spikes in international competition—was an Illini … though not at the time.
Nike's first-ever promotional poster appeared in August of 1972
On July 29, 1972, 16-year old Craig Virgin—a senior-to-be at Lebanon High School, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis—was invited to compete for a U.S. junior team against an age 19 and under squad from the Soviet Union. On Virgin's feet that day were handmade spikes, provided to him by Nike's first promotions man, Geoff Hollister. Sporting green soles, the white nylon uppers were adorned with a black swoosh mark.
"I believe," said Virgin, "those were the first pair of Nike spikes ever worn in international track and field competition."
Recently, Morris confirmed Virgin's claim.
"What I learned from our Nike DNA team is that Craig did wear handmade Bowerman prototype Nike spikes that day in Sacramento," Morris said. "It's always nice to confirm yet another Nike/Illini connection!"
A recent scene of Craig Virgin with the Nike shoes he first wore in 1972
A photographer at that meet corroborated the story further by snapping a shot of Virgin leading two Russian runners. That photo provided the scene for Nike's first-ever poster, distributed by the company a month later.
Four years later, at the 1976 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore., Virgin—running in the 10K finals—became one of Nike's first three Olympic runners, joining Frank Shorter and Garry Bjorkland in qualifying for the Munich Games.
In a 2017 book authored by Randy Sharer, entitled VIRGIN TERRITORY: The Story of Craig Virgin, America's Renaissance Runner, the post-race scene was described.
"As (Virgin) crossed second (behind Shorter) in a personal best of 27:59.43, he collapsed. "You don't know what a feeling it is to realize you're second in the Olympic Trials," he told Dave Dorr of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I think when I crossed the finish line and I knew that I had made the team, it was just one of the happiest moments of my life."
"After taking a victory lap, Craig was greeted on the backstretch by legendary Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, who shook his hand and wrapped an arm around him. Bowerman asked if his parents were present. Upon learning they weren't, Bowerman said, 'Come with me. I'll treat you to a phone call. Call them and tell them you made the Olympic team.' Craig walked to a trackside phone booth to use Bowerman's credit card to call. It was an act of kindness Craig never forgot."
NEXT IN THIS SERIES: Student-athletes and coaches share their experiences about wearing Nike gear as Fighting Illini.
