FOSSIL -- Jon Bowerman is the first-born son of Oregon royalty. But it does not mean much right now. Because right now, Bowerman is pinned against the side of a corral, nearly altogether immobilized by seven twisted ropes attached to wild horses. Two are in one corral, five pulling the other way from another pen. The horses pulled. Bowerman, 76, grimaced. Fortunately, Bowerman brought a knife to the fight. The blade is outside immediately and Bowerman cuts his way free. Hours earlier, Bowerman relaxed at his hand-built dining room table discussing a really different kind of dilemma. His wife, Melissa Marie Bowerman, was sitting in the Jefferson County Jail in Madras. She is accused of sending nude pictures of herself to an associate of the Madras High School track team she trained, exchanging sexual messages with him and asking if the 17-year-old pupil wanted to have sex with her. In reality, Bowerman was going to speak to herself time since she had been arrested five days earlier. They had a lot to speak about. And, under jail rules, they had just 30 minutes. He also said he had no intention of bailing out his wife, for two -- also practical -- motives: Melissa Bowerman's court-appointed attorney advised against it; and he can't manage it. "Everybody thinks I've got all this Nike cash," Bowerman said. "BOWERMAN don't." Jon Bowerman is the son of Bill Bowerman, Nike's co founder and the celebrated University of Oregon track coach. A statue of the trainer presides over an outside corner of UO's Hayward Field track. The official address of Nike's Beaverton-region World Headquarters campus is 1 Bowerman Drive. While the company these days churns out new products at a rapid clip, its first game-changing invention was the Waffle Trainer, a running shoe with a lone featuring rubber nubs that mimicked one half of a waffle iron. That is because Bill Bowerman, always tinkering and devising, created the shoe while experimenting with his wife's waffle iron. Bill Bowerman, credited by some with inspiring the jogging boom in the usa, remains a revered, inspiring figure within Nike and in the track and field world. Bill Bowerman died Dec. 24, 1999, in a retirement home in Fossil. At least five years later, Jon Bowerman, a horse trainer and former rodeo cowboy, was attending a horse-training clinic at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis. Bowerman, who'd already been married and divorced three times (the second marriage produced his two now-adult daughters and a grandchild), saw a girl. "I was standing there where people came in and I thought, 'wow,'" he said. "So, her only son made it a point during a rest to walk up and introduce myself. "And we didn't actually go out for maybe a year after that." Melissa was living in Springfield at the time. Bowerman recalled meeting her for a milkshake before a July 2008 Oregon Bach Festival musical homage to his dad. In the course of dialog, Jon Bowerman described to Melissa why he was in town. After, Bowerman says, Melissa told pals her new acquaintance "is a cowboy. Myself's from eastern Oregon." "So what does his family do?" Bowerman says a pal asked her. "Well, I don't really know, but I believe his father is some form of musician." Bowerman laughs at the recollection. It's an indicator, he considers, that the friend wasn't interested in him for family cash. "I'm the only one in the family who does not have any Nike stock," he said. Bowerman says about $1,000 in Nike stock he purchased soon after the business went public in 1980 grew to $25,000 at a time when he wanted the cash to construct his house on his land next to the John Day River. "If I had not constructed the house it would have been worth a million or two," he said of the stock. The three brothers, Bowerman said, check with the Community Foundation about where their share of money should be donated annually. Jon said his father also left stock to him. But those shares -- valued at nearly $500,000 -- went to his second wife in the divorce settlement. Bowerman has led a cowboy's life or, more precisely, a rancher's life, much of his mature years. The Coach was coach of the women's U.S. Ski Team from 1975 to 1978, before taking up rodeo for three years and exiting that profession after breaking his neck. His two-story dwelling is compact and filled with nike free run for women.characteristics he built himself. The interior, from wallpaper to light fixtures, has a cowboy theme. Melissa Bowerman may not have known who Bill Bowerman was before meeting his oldest son, but it seems she learned quickly. His wife is credited with rummaging through a box of items in the Eugene-place house of Tom Bowerman and finding a rusty waffle iron that is one o nike free run 5.0 women. the appliances Bill Bowerman used to create the first sole. The waffle iron and other things in that box are now the property of Nike. His wife once located a pair of initial leather Nike Cortez running shoes that were worn by Bill Bowerman then Jon Bowerman. After learning their history, his wife sold them to Nike, Jon Bowerman said. Melissa Bowerman worked with Nike employees to help pay for track gear and uniforms for the Condon/Wheeler track and field team where she and Jon were trainers. Jon says he told his wife he wasn't comfortable with her being friendly nike free run green.ith students. And Bowerman cited a Bible verse from Thessalonians to support his position. Jon springs in the dining room table to get the family Bible and instantly turns to the page. Jon points to the key phrase: "Abstain from all appearance of evil." Myself said he did not see anything unusual or improper about the three-decade age difference between him and Melissa, noting that there was a 25-year age difference between him and his second wife, the mother of his kids. He said Melissa and he were in love and that was that. The day after her arrest myself told a reporter for The Oregonian that he still adored her. Days later, her only son stood by the statement though he declined to say with this storyline whether he would seek a divorce. "God hates the sin but loves the sinner," he said. "Unconditional love means you love them no matter what. So, yeah. She's going to cover this the remainder of her life. She is going to pay manner beyond going to prison." "Virtually everybody has offered moral support. You know -- 'we feel badly for ya, what can we do for ya.' Her new acquaintance tell them, 'Hey, I am not the one that's in jail.' "Yeah, it hurts, in more ways than one as you are able to imagine. But, however, I look at the waste that is going to come as an effect of this. It is not to say I condone her behavior. I certainly do not." She was an extremely good track coach, Bowerman said, capable to see little details in an athlete's operation that may be enhanced. She was also a great photographer, he said. And one was good with details and planning along with interior decorating. He knows that those who revere his dad are worried that his name was linked to this story. "I know it because they have called and told me," he said. "The Melissa deal is history now. She will not get any more headlines," he said. "I've said this before: I believe the Bowerman name ... is strong enough to weather this storm. It is unfortunate my dad's name keeps getting drug into this because Melissa did not even know him." To make ends meet, his father supervises an Oregon Youth Conservation team during the summertime. After cutting the ropes, his father scooped up the Byzantine knot and walked slowly out of the ring. "First time that's ever happened," my father said. When his father appeared from the Jefferson County Jail later in the day, his eyes were misty. They both cried, my father said. He was reconsidering whether to pay the bond. He said he had speak to her lawyer before determining. But she'll serve prison time, his father said, and it is potential her parents may have passed away by the time she was released. My Father said he desired to take that into consideration. After Melissa Bowerman's arrest, she was outfitted in an orange jumpsuit for her jailhouse picture. In the portrait, she looks distracted and disheveled. Bowerman, asked if he learned anything new in his brief jailhouse conversation, said, "Nope." He then paused. "His wife didn't look as awful as she did in her graphic," Bowerman said. Afterward the old cowboy with the renowned name grinned as he stood tall and walked out from the jailhouse. -- Allan Brettman

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