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.jpg) Dellinger at the 1964 Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | William Solon Dellinger |
| Born | March 23, 1934 Grants Pass, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | June 27, 2025 (aged 91) Eugene, Oregon, U.S. |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Track and Field |
| Event(s) | 1500 m, 5000 m |
| Club | Oregon Track Club |
| Team | University of Oregon |
| Coached by | Bill Bowerman |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | 1500 m – 3:41.5 (1958) 1 mile – 4:02.7 (1961) 2 miles – 8:43.8 (1961) 5000 m – 13:49.8 (1964) |
Medal record | |
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William Solon Dellinger (March 23, 1934 – June 27, 2025) was an American middle-distance runner and coach. He competed in the 5,000 m at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won a bronze medal in 1964, setting his personal record.[1][2] He lettered in track at the University of Oregon in 1954, 1955, and 1956.
Coaching career
Upon retirement from competition, Dellinger took a position as the assistant coach to Bill Bowerman for the Oregon Ducks track and field team. After Bowerman's retirement in 1972,[2] Dellinger succeeded him as head coach. In his 25 years of coaching, Dellinger's men won five NCAA titles, achieved 108 All American honors, and had a 134–29 meet record. He was the Pac-10 coach of the year multiple times.[3]
Dellinger was instrumental in the development and coaching of Oregon and American great distance star Steve Prefontaine in conjunction with Bowerman, and their experience was made into a 1997 film Prefontaine, in which Bill Dellinger was played by Ed O'Neill.
In Co-Operation with Adidas, Dellinger developed the so-called "Dellinger Web", a Cushioning Technology used on various Shoes throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
Dellinger also coached many post-collegians including Olympians Mary Decker, Bill McChesney, Alberto Salazar, Matt Centrowitz, Don Clary, and many others.[1]
After retiring from coaching
Dellinger retired from the University of Oregon in 1998[4] and would later join his mentor, Bill Bowerman, as an inductee in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2001. He retired after he had a stroke in 2000.
From his retirement on, he stayed out of the track and field world except for a few appearances at meets named in his honor.
In 2021, USA Track and Field awarded Dellinger their Legend Coach Award.[5]
Dellinger was inducted into the USTFCCCA Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame in 2024.[6]
Death
Dellinger died on June 27, 2025 at a care facility in Eugene, Oregon from cancer at the age of 91.[7][8]
Records
Records set by Dellinger:[9]
- 1956 American Record holder: 5000 meters 14:16.2
- 1958 American Record holder: 1500 meters 3:41.5
- 1959 World Record holder (indoors): 2 miles 8:49.9
- 1959 World Record holder (indoors): 3 miles 13:37.0
- 1960 American record holder: 2 miles 8:43.8
See also
References
- Bill Dellinger Archived 2015-07-01 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- Binder, Doug (August 20, 2008). "Bill Dellinger surged to '64 Olympic bronze and helped put Oregon on track map". The Oregonian. Retrieved August 20, 2008.
- "Dellinger voted Pac-10's award as coach of year". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. June 20, 1986. p. 3C.
- "Bill Dellinger's Retirement from the University of Oregon".
- "LONGTIME UNIVERSITY OF OREGON COACH BILL DELLINGER TO RECEIVE 2021 USATF LEGEND COACH AWARD". United States Track and Field. June 22, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
- "Introducing the Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame Class of 2024". March 22, 2024. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
- "DyeStat.com - News - Oregon Hall of Fame Coach And Three-Time Olympian Bill Dellinger Dies". www.runnerspace.com. Retrieved June 27, 2025.
- "Bill Dellinger, Runner and Track Coach Who Mentored Stars, Dies at 91". The New York Times. July 18, 2025. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
- Duck Record Holders Archived 2011-07-09 at the Wayback Machine. goducks.com
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Bill Dellinger, Runner and Track Coach Who Mentored Stars, Dies at 91
After running the 5,000 meters in three Olympics, he coached the likes of Steve Prefontaine and Joaquim Cruz at his alma mater, the University of Oregon.
Bill Dellinger, who ran the 5,000 meters for the United States in three Olympics and then became a successful coach at the University of Oregon, his alma mater, nurturing the careers of such standout runners as the Olympians Steve Prefontaine and Joaquim Cruz and the marathon runner Alberto Salazar, died on June 27 in Eugene, Ore. He was 91.
His death, in a care facility, was from cancer, his son Joe said on Friday.
At Oregon, Dellinger coached the track teams for 26 years (1973-98) and the cross-country teams for 30 (1969-98). During that span, Oregon won three N.C.A.A. team championships in cross-country and one in outdoor track. In retirement, he coached Mary Decker (now Mary Slaney), probably the best American female middle-distance runner of all time.
His coaching success followed a productive running career of his own. At Oregon, Dellinger started as a 5-foot-9, 137-pound miler and won the N.C.A.A. title in 1954. He later switched to the 5,000 meters (3.1 miles), which he ran in the 1956, ’60 and ’64 Olympics. After winning a bronze medal in 1964, he retired as a runner.
As a coach, he was a laid-back philosopher whose athletes called him Bill, not Coach. Many went on to glory. Prefontaine set multiple long-distance records in the early to mid-1970s, won gold in the 1971 Pan American Games and competed in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He died at 24 in an automobile crash in Eugene in 1975 while preparing for the 1976 Games.
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The Cuban-born Salazar won three New York City Marathons in the 1980s and the 1982 Boston Marathon. Cruz took the gold medal in the 800-meter event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. And another of Dellinger’s runners, Matt Centrowitz, also an Olympian, who won four United States national championships in the 5000-meter run from 1979 to 1982.
Dellinger preached moderation in training. He told Runner’s World magazine in 1980: “Most runners have the false impression that the more miles they can run, the better they’re going to be. Mileage is beneficial only to a certain point, and once that’s reached, it becomes damaging. I do think holding a runner back is what the true art of coaching is about.”
William Solon Dellinger was born on March 23, 1934, in Grants Pass, in southwest Oregon, to Shirley and Avril (Swacker) Dellinger. His father worked for Shell Global delivering heating oil.
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Dellinger’s introduction to track came as a high school freshman when the track coach asked the physical education teacher to have the class run three laps around the track.
“I can still remember the coach waving his arms at me as we came around the first lap, yelling for me to slow down,” he recalled. “I came around again on the second lap and had a big lead on everyone else, and he’s screaming at me to slow down again. I guess he figured I must’ve been pretty good, because my time for the three laps was faster than any of the guys on the track team.”
Dellinger joined the team, and a few weeks later he placed high in the state mile championship. Before graduating, he won it.
During college and after, he won three national and two N.C.A.A. titles as well as the 5,000 meters at the 1959 Pan American Games. He broke the world indoor records for two and three miles. And he set American records outdoors, once for 1,500 meters and three times for the 5,000.
At Oregon, Dellinger earned a bachelor’s degree in 1956 and a master’s in 1962, both in education. After college, he spent three years in the Air Force and then taught and coached in high school and briefly coached in junior college. From 1967 to 1973, he was assistant track coach at Oregon under his former college coach, Bill Bowerman, a co-founder of the Nike footwear brand, with Phil Knight.
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Dellinger coached the United States men’s distance runners in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He was elected to several track and field halls of fame.
His wife, Marol, died in 2014. In addition to his son Joe, he is survived by another son, David, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Dellinger was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, had a stroke in 2000 and underwent surgery in 2012 to have a malignant tumor removed from his stomach.
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He retired at 64, but he continued to work out every other day on the Oregon track for a time, preferring it to running on the campus grounds or in the streets of Eugene.
“I go to the track in the evening when no one’s around,” he told the running magazine The Harrier in 1998. “I don’t like to jog.”
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