Long May You Run!
Week of May 22, 2021
Enjoy an entertaining talk about Susie’s personal history as one of ” The Women or Oregon” runners back in the initial days of Title IX, which progressed to 35 years of successful, competitive running and coaching.
Susie will also be teaching some of the fitness classes.
A “Woman of Oregon” Track & Cross Country and NIKE Star, Susan Neighbors shares her history and the history of women’s sports in Oregon, pre and post Title IX. University of Oregon Varsity Letter Holder in both Track & Cross Country back in the “hey day” of Women’s Running in Oregon shares the humble roots of competitive running in Oregon and beyond when there was no or little money nor support for women’s sports. Susie Neighbors started her Cross Country Team at a small private girls’ school in downtown Portland with no funding, no coaching and went on to walk onto one of the country’s most prestigious running teams, bringing her University of Oregon Team to the Regional Title Winner in 1980 in Cross Country. She went on to run successfully post college and continued to win most local, regional 5K,10K,15K, and multi-sport races from 1975-1985 as well as a big international gold in Sapporo, Japan in 1983. She continued as a Masters Runner winning most local races and was a NIKE Master Cross Country team member claiming the National Title in 2001. Susie worked with Bill Bowerman (NIKE co-founder and shoe designer) on one of the 1st ever NIKE woman’s shoes along with her UO team members in the late 70’s when there were no women’s running shoes -women just bought men’s shoes 1.5 sizes smaller! Her foot X-rays and other memorabilia of this study are in the Nike Archives, a private museum on the NIKE Campus in Portland, OR. Susie was recently awarded a Prestigious Award from her High school for Achievement in Athletics