If You Can’t Dazzle Them with Your Brilliance…

One of the best friends I ever had was Jerry Tyree.  I met him in the Marines and we were roommates a time or two in the three plus years we served together.  He was a pleasant young man with an audacity only matched by his dependability and faithfulness to friends.  He also liked to latch on to quips that caught his ear as particularly poignant and applicable in everyday life.  One in particular, I remember hearing him repeat numerous times.

It began, “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance…”

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William Jay “Bill” Bowerman is perhaps best known as the long-time coach of the University of Oregon track and field team, which included some of the preeminent athletes of the time, including Steve Prefontaine (If you haven’t seen the movies Prefontaine and Without Limits, you should.). He is slightly less remembered as one of the co-founders of Nike. 

Even fewer people know that Bowerman was a hero of World War II.  Still less of those are aware of exactly why he is considered to be a hero or the fact that it was partly by accident.  Of course, even though I say it was by accident, he would have failed spectacularly and long been forgotten if he hadn’t used his innate intelligence, along with a liberal amount of bluster and, well, a heaping helping of bull—-, uh, shall we say, baloney?

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In the years before December 7, 1941 Bowerman was in the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) and the Army Reserve.  After the Japanese forces attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Bill joined the U.S. Army as a 2nd lieutenant.  After serving a year at Fort Lawton in Washington, he was assigned to the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment at Camp Hale in Leadville, Colorado.  The 86th was combined with the 87th to  form the 10th Mountain Division.

In December of 1944 the 10th Mountain arrived in Naples, Italy before moving north to the mountains of northern Italy.  Bowerman was promoted to major and made the commander of the 86th Regiment’s First Battalion.

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Near the Brenner Pass, his unit received word that Regimental Intelligence had captured a German colonel and extracted information from him.  Major Bowerman ran out and grabbed a captain, a couple lieutenants, and an interpreter.  He told them he’d heard that a few Germans were in the woods nearby and ready to surrender. 

“Come on,” he said, “let’s get a few Lugers.”  He was referring to the German pistols that Americans valued as souvenirs of the war.

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Now, this story has been told in a different way by others, who said Bowerman got turned around and lost, and what happened was just the quick-thinking Bowerman’s way of getting them all out of a jam.  Well, I believe he had a very good idea what was going to happen and, for some reason, didn’t want the other soldiers with him to know about it, at least at first.  One of the reasons I think so is that he loaded them all in the jeep and he climbed in behind the wheel.  As an officer, he wasn’t supposed to drive himself.  He would have been well aware of that.

It wasn’t long before they ran into a German checkpoint.  He told the Nazis that he was on his way to meet with the German High Command.  They let him pass.  A few miles later they were stopped at another checkpoint, this one manned by German SS (the Nazi party’s storm troopers).  It took a little more bluster and bluff but Bill was able to get through that roadblock too.  Bowerman ordered the SS lieutenant there to call the general.  He commanded, “I am a major and I order you to call the general and tell him a group of American officers would like to talk to him in his headquarters.”

The baffled lieutenant made the call and the general promised to send a car to bring Bill and his interpreter to the headquarters.  At the headquarters (fifteenth century Castel Toblino) the interpreter noted the large number of armed guards and started mentally planning an escape.  They entered a room where the general was surrounded by numerous staff officers.

When they stood facing him, the German general, who had 4,000 men in the area, asked what Major Bowerman wanted.  Bill said, “General, you surely know you cannot resist our air force, artillery, and troops standing by to blast you off the map.  Do you want to avoid this bloodshed?  We come to you with an offer to accept your surrender.”

Now, imagine that.  Two American soldiers were standing in front of several Nazi officers, in a building surrounded by 4,000 armed German soldiers, and saying basically, “Give up now and we won’t hurt you.”

I don’t know exactly what was going through the general’s head, but he took Bowerman seriously.  He said he had to ask his headquarters for permission, which was given.  Not only did that general surrender, but the German army signed a surrender in Caserta, near Naples, thus ending the entire war in Italy.

Bill Bowerman had negotiated the surrender of 4000 men, compromising the German Fourteenth Army.  Like dominoes falling, the Germans had then surrendered to end the war in Italy.  Three weeks later, Adolph Hitler committed suicide, precipitating the end of the Germans’ involvement in World War II.

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I’m not saying that Bowerman’s actions ended the Germans’ part in the war, which drastically compromised chances that the Japanese would be able to accomplish their goal of world domination, but I know it played an important role, and not because he dazzled them with his brilliance.

As my friend, Jerry Tyree, used to say, “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bull—-.” 

Bill Bowerman may well have been the King of Bull.

Just saying.

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It was 78 years ago yesterday, December 7, that an attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese propelled us into World War II.  The many men and women whose courage and determination led to our survival as a nation are owed a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.  Further, I want to extend my personal thanks to all military men and women, past or present, for their service to our country.

All gave some; some gave all.

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I got some of the information for this post from the book, “Bowerman and the Men of Oregon”, by Kenny Moore.  I highly recommend that fantastic read, especially to those interested in track and field, distance running, Nike, jogging, and history in general.

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