This signature on small yellow lined paper gives me permission to join Bowerman's MPE 127 Training and Conditioning class (also coded as TLN 4712) in the winter of 1971-72. A number of students from the fall Cross Country running class continued running in the Training and Conditioning class. By springtime, Coach Bowerman allowed us to continue running and earning Physical Education credit by giving us permission to sign up for Varsity Track and Field.

The class continued under the tutelage of Bill Dellinger after he became head coach in 1972. 

I met Billy Squires, the legendary Greater Boston Track Club coach, in 1976 on the day before the men’s marathon Olympic Trials race. We became good friends, and he coached me by mail for the next several years. 

Squires was the coach of Billy Rodgers, and the high school coach of Alberto Salazar. Salazar has confirmed the likelihood of my ‘claim to fame’ that I might well be the only person on the planet who has been coached by Bowerman, Dellinger, and Squires – or, as I like to call them, “My Three Bills.”