Collection is open for research.
Kenneth "Kenny" Clark Moore was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1943. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to Eugene. He attended the University of Oregon and participated in track and field under coach Bill Bowerman. He studied law at Stanford University. He was a marathon runner for the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 and 1972. After retiring from track and field, he was a journalist for Sports Illustrated for 25 years. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1982 movie "Personal Best," and wrote the screenplay for the 1998 movie "Without Limits." In 2006, he published a biography of Bill Bowerman, "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon." He was inducted into both the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Oregon Athletic Hall of Fame. He died in 2022.
An incomplete transcript (35 pages) and a handwritten index (4 pages) are available for in-person use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Oral history interview with Kenny Moore, by Linda S. Dodds, SR 9358, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Kenny Moore was conducted by Linda S. Dodds in Eugene, Oregon, on July 9, 1982, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library's oral history program. At the time of the interview, Dodds' name was Linda S. Brody.
In this interview, Moore discusses his participation in track and field sports under coach Bob Newland at North Eugene High School, and talks about several of his teammates. He then talks about his participation in track and field sports under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. He describes his training, talks about Bowerman's shoe design experiments, and shares his memories of racing at UO. He also talks about studying philosophy in college. He then speaks at length about his experiences as a marathon runner for the U.S. team at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. He also talks about his opposition to the Vietnam War and his experience of getting drafted between the years he ran in the Olympics. He shares his memories of the U.S. team's reaction to the terrorist attack on the Israeli Olympic team in 1972, known as the Munich Massacre. He shares his reasons for retiring from track and field sports and speaks about his career as a journalist for Sports Illustrated. He closes the interview by talking about co-writing a screenplay for and acting in the 1982 movie "Personal Best."
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA,